Thought du jour - 16 October 2011

"Ultimately, I wonder if we really want free will. Is it worth the effort? Considering how accustomed we’ve become to a numbed, automated existence, the phenomenon of consciousness could be on the brink of fading out." - Mac Tonnies

Thought du jour - 10 October 2011

"I foresee a future in which memories - real and simulated - are routinely swapped between consenting (and not-so-consenting) parties. What will this do to the concept of empathy? Will we become more or less 'human'?" - Mac Tonnies

Thought du jour - 27 September 2011

"The world we've created for ourselves is a shadow of our reproductive imperative, and our institutions are symptomatic of our devotion to our short-lived physical selves. The activities of a typical day betray our dedication to maintaining reproductive viability. But the chemical phenomenon that gives the single-celled amoeba its raison d'etre seems somehow less-than-noble for a species that has evolved the singular and promising faculties of foresight and imagination. I think the human species is approaching a point where the need to create (in the biological sense) will be superseded by the sheer pleasure of thought itself. We will continue to be creators. But our slavish attachment to the physical world and all of its superficial excess will be left behind as we plunge forward, breaking down the perceived barriers between mind and brain, thought and flesh, sentience and circuitry." - Mac Tonnies

Note: The quote above is taken from Mac's short but thought-provoking essay, Sentience and Circuitry: Meat is Memory.

Paul Kimball

Thought du jour - 15 September 2011

"Consciousness is a potential technology; we are exquisite machines, nothing less than sentient patterns. As such, there's no convincing technical reason we can't eventually upload ourselves into matrices of our design and choosing. It's likely the phenomenon we casually call "intelligence" will cease to be strictly biological as we begin to merge with our machines more meaningfully and intimately." - Mac Tonnies

Thought du jour - 17 August 2011

"I don't think any transhumanist thinkers want to create a 'perfect' being; the operative goal is to empower the human species on an individual level. In a foreseeable future scenario, instead of being saddled with the genome one blindly inherits, one can choose to become an active participant - and I find that possibility incredibly liberating and exciting. Transhumanism is not eugenics." - Mac Tonnies