Reading and Sharing around the Globe
Apr 24, 2012
An Optimist's Tour of the Future, part 1...
Sorry we are late, but we've been so busy lately that is hard to find time for everything... so does anyone want to start with comments on part One? I promise I'm catching up in the next few weeks... shame on me but something called "War and Peace" from this Tolstoi guy got in the middle and it's not exactly the kind of book that you read in a weekend, (but great book, sure I can see why is more than 100 years old and still there!). So any optimists out there that want to lead the discussion?
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I have not finished the first part yet (I am in chapter 2) and, so far, rather than optimism I feel kind of fear. The whole transhumanism movement got me quite scared.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I really want to live forever... At this point, I find it difficult to believe that we, our generation, will already be living longer - as it seems to be suggested.
Anyway, as I said, I am just at the beginning and there is still much to be read. I think I am going to find out about many theories and topics totally new to me. Not sure how they will make me feel, but sure I will be learning a lot.
Looking forward to reading your impressions!
Looks like we are all late! For different reasons, I guess...
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapters 1 and 2, I agree with Macarena that I feel more scared than optimistic. Where is the world heading to?
Transhumanism sounds like science fiction to me, but they way science and medicine are evolving, I don´t rule it out completely. Not so much living forever but living longer. But do we want to be immortal? I am not even thinking whether or not I would want to live forever (I need to give this more thought). I am thinking of bad people in history that do we want to have them forever? Say Franco, Hitler, you name it... No, thank you.
The other thing that comes to mind is if we are to live 1,000 years, we´d better stop having children. What would be the point?
Regarding genomics, this is delicate. Do we want babies to be born disease free? Yes. Do we want to be programmed and tailor-made? All blond, tall, beautiful, intelligent and manipulated? Again, no, thank you.
I suppose with our current society and social structures, these are situations difficult to imagine. If the time comes, our societies will change accordingly and I cannot think of them with my nowadays mentality.
Wow, it is difficult to summarize all the ideas. In that sense, I think Mark Stevenson clearly explains scientific stuff in a way everyone can understand.
I'm still lagging behind, but in the coming days I'm catching up for sure!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Arantxa, transhumanism makes me afraid... and I also see the superpopulation problem there. If we are to live forever, or for 500 years, and we keep having children at this rhythm, environmental consequences will be important. And I don't know about physically resisting, I guess they could program us to be stronger, illness free, etc... but what about psycologically? Could we endure a thousand year life? Would tragedy stop having sense after a while? and love? Would we grow uninterested in everything once we know there is no end? People tend to live more intensely when they have been close to death, so having no fear to death... what would people do?
Good point! would you get married if you knew we would live 500 years?
ReplyDeleteToo late for some of you... :-)
Have a good weekend!