Flow Your Tears, the Pepper-spraying Policeman Said

Transhuman Space

It's been around for a while now, but time has not diminished its power to provoke debates about the myriad ways in which transhumanism may play out (in the distant future), thanks to the game's detailed world-building. I think Transhuman Space could even be used as a teaching aid. I like to consider some of its central themes alongside my earlier post on AIs, moral consideration etc. To the future!


The sliding scale of robot intelligence: We have non-sapient AI (NAI), low-sapient AI (LAI), and Sapient AI (SAI). Also their template IQ bonus is dependent on their program complexity.

Two kinds of brain uploading. "Ghosts" where the brain is destroyed in the process, and "shadows" where the brain survives but the AI simulation isn't as good.

Transhumanism is banned: Largely averted, though various societies ban some Transhumanist technologies - the Islamic Caliphate bans ghosts, the European Union bans radical human genetic engineering, and so on.

What measure is a nonhuman? Legal attitudes vary greatly by country, usually AIs and Uplifts are property and Bioroids are treated as permanent minors while Ghosts and Parahumans are full citizens but there are exceptions. For example the EU gives full citizenship to Bioroids and SAI while the Caliphate treats SAI as people and Ghosts as abominations (my guess is they believe infomorphs have souls). (tvtropes.org)

The Eight Day

This made me think of the character "Coyote" from Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. But I should defer instead to the statement of the artists responsible for the work.

Makis Voridis

So this will mean austerity measures will rain down on the Greek people like blows from an axe. Derridata emailed me something on a not unrelated note: 

with the coming collapse of the Eurozone it's hard not to ponder what it will become of it as a reworked rallying call for nationalists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjovTRfj2Gc

I'm a Judeo-Christian morality with a Greco-Roman intellect
It's the way we're short-wired
It's a civilising force that demands respect - from the Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!


Why are the proud descendants of Plato paying off more debts accommodating NATO?
We the caretakers of democracy no longer tolerate this hypocrisy
Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!


- Old Europe


I'm a Judeo-Christian morality with a Greco-Roman intellect
It's the way we're short-wired
It's a civilising force that demands respect - from the Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!

The welfare state: why we need a "Jerusalem for all"

This appeal to the inclusiveness of the British welfare state harks back to the post-war period. It is offered at a time when moves are afoot in Britain to make it a mandatory requirement for chemotherapy or radiotherapy patients to have to report for job interviews. As a part-time personal carer for someone with cancer myself, I am so shocked beyond belief that I really don't know what to say. Anyway, the speaker in the video is so eloquent I don't think I could add much.

All I'll say then is that the idea of appealing to a "Jerusalem for all", which acknowledges Britain's fine past welfare legacy, indeed comparable to Australia's at that time in many respects, can, I believe, be clearly distinguished from comparisons of any continuity between, say, the Scandinavian welfare state, and Nazi policy. I would have quoted Roger Griffin to this effect, but he did not give me permission to cite his reaction on this blog, so I'll refer interested readers instead to something else I've come across. Check out page 266 of the following book, which refers to British historian of science, Paul Weindling (Weindling basically argues that Nazi eugenics were different from the very outset from the Scandinavian program).

Indeed, it is fascinating how in the present British context there is such critical awareness of the odious legacy of Nazi "Sonderbehandlung" (check out the comments thread of the post I've linked to here if you're curious).

Bringing it all back home....

Just remember, the police started using helicopters after their proven success in the Vietnam War, so it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise that moves would be afoot to now introduce drones as well. Will this be for covert surveillance only (sinister enough), or will we see these things armed as well? And if they are to be armed, how long will it be till a missile is "accidentally" launched into the next demonstration by the Occupy movement or something similar? Trust me, it will never happen to the Tea Party.

It reminds me of that wonderful line from Alien: "the company must have wanted it (i.e. the alien creature) for their Urban Pacification Unit."

"Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA - latimes.com: "The Federal Aviation Administration plans to propose new rules for the use of small drones in January, a first step toward clearing the way for police departments, farmers and others to employ the technology."

Let me guess: you're feeling safer already, right?

South Korea to trial robot prison guards

It is just wrong on so many levels

So may we all look forward to the day when we toil in private prisons assembling Microsoft products under the watchful eye of our robot overlords!!