Speaking of existential crisis, this guy at Oxford thinks we are underestimating the risk of humanity's self-destruction. He also says a lot of stuff I don't fully understand. But I understood this:
Q: What technology, or potential technology, worries you the most?Oh crap, Wikipedia says existential crises are incurable.
A: I can mention a few. In the nearer term I think various developments in biotechnology and synthetic biology are quite disconcerting. We are gaining the ability to create designer pathogens and there are these blueprints of various disease organisms that are in the public domain---you can download the gene sequence for smallpox or the 1918 flu virus from the Internet. So far the ordinary person will only have a digital representation of it on their computer screen, but we're also developing better and better DNA synthesis machines, which are machines that can take one of these digital blueprints as an input, and then print out the actual RNA string or DNA string. Soon they will become powerful enough that they can actually print out these kinds of viruses. So already there you have a kind of predictable risk, and then once you can start modifying these organisms in certain kinds of ways, there is a whole additional frontier of danger that you can foresee.
In the longer run, I think artificial intelligence---once it gains human and then superhuman capabilities---will present us with a major risk area. There are also different kinds of population control that worry me, things like surveillance and psychological manipulation pharmaceuticals.
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*Except today, when I get up, go to work, and then go downtown to throw balls at people in a confined space. Dodgeball is great for getting the aggression out! Rawr!
I agree with that guy. Artificial intelligence and some of the things we are doing with DNA, etc seem dangerous to me. In a world where money is God, where do people garner their morals? How do we continue to value other humans over technology and what we can "get." Where does it stop?
ReplyDelete(sorry you are questioning your purpose in life. but my dissertation research says its a developmental stage, so maybe wikipedia is wrong and you'll find your answers someday - or become OK with not knowing the answers)
I walked into my H2S safety class this morning in Calgary, checked in, and proceeded to barf into the recycling bin 5 or 6 times. I've got a
ReplyDeleterunny tummy since the middle of the night, aches, chills, and then the barfing from this morning.
Had to stay for the class. I hope I can sleep some of it off. Two more class days tomorrow and Friday. Sigh. Hope I feel better soon. Just woke up from a nap - I may be making slight progress...
Back to the topic at hand now that I'm feeling better: How, in the absence of religion, partner, kids, or any particular desire to do community service, does one add meaning or purpose to ones life?
ReplyDeleteIf you come up with a good answer, I'd love to hear it, as I'm much in the same boat.
In other news, just bought this.
ReplyDeleteFinished it.
DeleteAnd? Worth reading?
DeleteI think so, yeah, if you liked the first one. This one does a couple things: gives backstory into how the situation in the first omnibus book came to be; and, then goes on to advance the original story a bit at the end and make it clear that when the third installment comes out, it'll weave the first two stories back together for a culmination.
DeleteI've had a lot of free time the last few days, so it was a good thing to read during slow days at work.
Like with the first thing, it wasn't the best thing I've ever read, but it was fun, and at this point I think I'll look forward to reading the conclusion.
How was dodgeball night? Bloody anyone's face?
ReplyDeleteAnother night out on the drilling rig here. Fun times.
Dodgeball is awesome. I pegged so many people.
DeleteOnly face injury was mine, but that was due to a breakfast with too-hot pizza cheese, not dodgeball.
Happy Valentine's Day.
DeleteThis is a lot of dodgeball...
ReplyDelete