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or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:02 pm
by vanlose kid
came across this in the graun:

Earlier this week, The Atlantic ran an eye-catching, disturbing interview with a professor of philosophy and bioethics at New York University called S. Matthew Liao. He was invited to discuss a forthcoming paper he has co-authored which will soon be published in the journal Ethics, Policy & Environment.

But within just a few hours of the interview going live a torrent of outrage and abuse was being directed towards him online. As I tweeted at the time, the interview was indeed "unsettling". Liao explained how his paper – entitled, "Human Engineering and Climate Change" – explored the so-far-ignored subject of how "biomedical modifications of humans" could be used to "mitigate and/or adapt to climate change". The modifications discussed included: giving people drugs to make them have an adverse reaction to eating meat; making humans smaller via gene imprinting and "preimplantation genetic diagnosis"; lowering birth-rates through "cognitive enhancement"; genetically engineering eyesight to work better in the dark to help reduce the need for lighting; and the "pharmacological enhancement of altruism and empathy" to engender a better "correlation" with environmental problems.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... philosophy


and after reading what i highlighted this is what came to mind:

Image

spooked myself, obviously.

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Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:20 pm
by NeonLX
GAAAH! Warn a brother before posting something like that, wouldja? :(

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 8:32 pm
by vanlose kid
NeonLX wrote:GAAAH! Warn a brother before posting something like that, wouldja? :(


sorry.

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Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 9:22 pm
by NeonLX
Heh.

I may not sleep very well tonight... :)

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:04 pm
by kafor
years ago I read a collection of short science fiction stories about dealing with climate change. The one that has stuck in my mind, because I found it so horribly possible, was about genetically changing a select group of humans so they could exisit in a toxic environment. Just the answer for our technologically "advanced" world. I wonder who would do the selections, Of course..... in the USA, all selections would be "fair and equal".
Kafor

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:44 pm
by vanlose kid
kafor wrote:years ago I read a collection of short science fiction stories about dealing with climate change. The one that has stuck in my mind, because I found it so horribly possible, was about genetically changing a select group of humans so they could exisit in a toxic environment. Just the answer for our technologically "advanced" world. I wonder who would do the selections, Of course..... in the USA, all selections would be "fair and equal".
Kafor


that's what worries me. it's the rational thing to do.

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Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:46 pm
by StarmanSkye
^^^^
'Course, Natural Selection aided by genetic mutation, greatly facilitated by the increase in cosmic radiation caused by human-created ozone-holes, and the DNA-mutating heavy-metals and ionizing radiation from human activities are already at work 'making' humans more adaptable to the toxic biosphere we created.

Only diference is, we're not actively controlling it -- its like an unmanaged experiment that we're kinda casual observor-participants in.

Dunno which is actually freakier -- making 'it' happen or letting 'it' happen while incidentally helping 'it' along.

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:49 am
by Simulist
Because it's just SO much "smarter" to live with the consequences of hacking our DNA than it would be to... I don't know... STOP BURNING OIL!!!

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 5:59 am
by eyeno
i'm mainly diggin vanclose new hair style. its rockin the house...

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:36 pm
by Grizzly


Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of meme, the teme, which spreads itself via technology -- and invents ways to keep itself alive

Susan Blackmore studies memes -- those self-replicating "life forms" that spread themselves via human consciousness. We're now headed, she believes, toward a new form of meme, spread by the technology we've created.

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:59 pm
by Wombaticus Rex
Memes are pretty dubious constructs: http://pizzaseo.blogspot.com/2008/12/me ... tions.html

I don't think they're real, but they definitely exist. I'll put it that way.

Love the retrocausality loop concept. I think that's one of Icke's more inspired collages -- "The Time Loop" is compelling in a PKD, "How would we know?" sort of way.

The Invisible Hand usually turns out to be our own.

Image

Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:09 pm
by vanlose kid
Wombaticus Rex wrote:Memes are pretty dubious constructs: http://pizzaseo.blogspot.com/2008/12/me ... tions.html

I don't think they're real, but they definitely exist. I'll put it that way.

Love the retrocausality loop concept. I think that's one of Icke's more inspired collages -- "The Time Loop" is compelling in a PKD, "How would we know?" sort of way.

The Invisible Hand usually turns out to be our own.

...


yeah, our hand, but retrocausality? nah. even backwards it's too linear.—future history.



Selfless man slip by my side
Uttering words about the turning tide, and
She slowly furnishes my continuous ride
Towards insanitary bits of hide
Hair quite long and lavender-dyed
Split nostrils are green open wide
Velvet breasts with crimson legs astride
Uttering words about a turning tide
And she asks me can I ever provide
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation

My liquid head open to the rain
I walk through a bushel and a peck of grain
I hear in my ear a hurricane
And speak to the man about a train
Touch with my hand an aeroplane
Eyes wide open on the coast of Maine
Red signs outside which I contain
Some sensuality that I can't explain, ah
Some sensuality that I can't explain
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation

Tables bearing the fruits of Lent
Styrofoam people quite violent
Clear light blowing right out of my tent
Ozone over our continent
Expert men not knowing what they meant
They all eat babies for nourishment
Funny bird with her forehead bent
Slogans tell me that I can rent
Ah, yes they tell me that I can rent
Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation

Uttering words about a turning tide

Some sensuality that I can't explain

Transparent radiation
Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation
Transparent radiation

Ozone over our continent

Yes they’re tellin’ me that I can rent

Transparent radiation
Oh, radiation

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Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:19 pm
by vanlose kid
Image

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Re: or our future is here to haunt us...

PostPosted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:23 pm
by vanlose kid
tripping. chicken. egg. for reference.



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