tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post1515262958998276937..comments2024-03-18T19:26:44.878-04:00Comments on The Silver Key: Are we becoming "The Happy Breed"?Brian Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-12521837415913518982011-10-17T13:07:27.306-04:002011-10-17T13:07:27.306-04:00Seems to me that this is kind of the whole point o...Seems to me that this is kind of the whole point of the Garden of Eden story: If man lives in a perfect place in which nothing bad ever happens, then there's no way to understand how good you have it until you lose it. Pain and sorrow is the price we pay for self-awareness.Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14624614486574035692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-25481372522065474362011-10-15T22:39:57.273-04:002011-10-15T22:39:57.273-04:00"Would we need God in this future?"
Fun..."Would we need God in this future?"<br /><br />Funny you should say that. I was just watched the "Classic Albums" doco on the making of Plastic Ono Band, and so the idea 'God is a concept by which we measure our pain' is fresh in my head, and would seem to be one answer to that question.<br /><br />Personally, I'm not a fan of the human apparatuses that surround beliefs in God, so I wouldn't miss the widespread the belief in it. If we got to the state of never feeling any pain, and everything blurred together FOR EVERYONE, and there were no anaesthetized underclasses being exploited by the few pain-feelers left, no one would know the difference and it wouldn't matter. Presumably a steady state, like death.<br /><br />For another musical reference, the Talking Heads: 'Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.'Spawn of Endrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10431848914619887998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-79594452695586586832011-10-15T14:37:48.358-04:002011-10-15T14:37:48.358-04:00But who is maintaining the machines? Do they not n...<i>But who is maintaining the machines? Do they not need to be maintained? If so, why are there people? Wouldn't we just die out if we just sat flopped on the ground with our pleasure centers stimulated? In ABNW people had to keep working at least to keep the world moving.</i><br /><br />"Who maintains the machines?" is a good question; "The Happy Breed" seems to infer that the supercomputer running the show has been programmed with artificial intelligence. I'm not entirely sure how plausible AI is, myself. But yes, in the story people are pretty much rendered infantile and extraneous, and the ending is pretty grim.<br /><br />Anarchist: You hope so? If you haven't read the story already, you might want to rethink that (warning: spoilers follow):<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happy_BreedBrian Murphyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05563309422791320114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-38422625026749680332011-10-15T14:16:01.511-04:002011-10-15T14:16:01.511-04:00I hope so, but I doubt it.I hope so, but I doubt it.anarchisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05546197561922726279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5723077228948447528.post-70444398071903704692011-10-15T11:42:47.965-04:002011-10-15T11:42:47.965-04:00Interesting vision of a Utopian future that achiev...Interesting vision of a Utopian future that achieves a similar result to Huxley's via different means than ABNW...neural soma, anyone?<br /><br /><i>"and thinking becomes superfluous and disappears"</i><br /><br />But who is maintaining the machines? Do they not need to be maintained? If so, why are there people? Wouldn't we just die out if we just sat flopped on the ground with our pleasure centers stimulated? In ABNW people had to keep working at least to keep the world moving.<br /><br /><i>It’s a world in which machines constantly analyze our bodies and minds and offer tranquilizers to still our troubling thoughts, and painless surgical intervention for every physical ailment.</i><br /><br />Come visit - Albany is pretty much taking the lead in nanotechnology for the nation.Falzehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13481333222029372752noreply@blogger.com