1. Transhumanism and Liberty
As transhumanism progresses further and further this is a question that is all the more important to resolve. Unfortunately science is usually the first victim in politics, so leaving this up to the politicians is probably not the right answer. While Bailey protests that the unenhanced would pose no threat to the enhanced, history and even current events do not bear this out. There are health care concerns in a welfare state such as ours. Why would the state bear the burdensome cost of those who won't help themselves by enhancing their immunities? There's education. Why must the state expend extra money on unenhanced, less intelligent students that consume a disproportionate amount of their teachers' time, attention and resources? While I sympathize with Bailey's libertarian utopian ideal of the state having no say in these matters and letting the market settle it all, the truth is that the state would almost certainly either coerce the unenhanced into enhancements, punish them via the tax code (which amounts to the same thing), punish us all by banning certain enhancements (which Bailey's debate opponent seems to favor), or punish the enhanced/wealthy into paying for even more extravagant social programs to protect the unenhanced. I agree with Bailey that transhumanism in and of itself is not incompatible with or a threat to the concept of liberty, but unfortunately the libertarian ideal does not exist and isn't likely to in our lifetime. So long as a portion of the American public remains uneducated and afraid of genetic enhancements (thanks to scaremongering from both right- and leftwing radicals) that prolong their children's lives and increase their intelligence and productivity, they'll vote for shrill politicians to keep everyone from having access to them.
2. Washington DC Overtakes Silicon Valley as Wealthiest City in America
What with the K Street lobbyists representing corporate interests that have grown ever larger and closer to government, the growth in the bureaucracy and the recession nationwide decimating industry, I suppose this shouldn't surprise. But it is still both shocking and extremely telling that the center of government has overtaken what is widely considered the center of innovation and private industry as the wealthiest city in America. Whatever it portends, it's certainly a handy fun-fact for the GOP hopefuls.
19.10.11
Early Edition
1. Is That a Tiger in the Front Yard?
This is insane. So far it sounds like the sheriff’s office has gunned down 35 of the nearly 50 exotic animals that escaped from the preserve (I believe this is The Wilds, I can’t think of any other exotic private game preserve in Zanesville, OH). But there are F-ing lions, tigers, bears and wolves roaming free, probably frightened and pissed off, and while I’m impressed that they’ve bagged as many of the animals as they have in such a short amount of time, I imagine there will be a few that elude capture/killing for a little while.
2. Romney Wins (Again); Gingrich Gets His First Bloody Nose; Cain Founders; Perry Falls Flat (Again)
Gingrich got his nose bloodied for the first time last night when he finally went on offense against Romeny on health care. His strategy up to this point (and it’s a good one) has been to steadfastly avoid criticizing his primary opponents; he strayed from it and got his hat handed to him by Romney. Very interesting to watch, and more than a little disappointing. I don’t care what the media, the polls or anyone else says, Cain is foundering. 9-9-9 got hit from every side last night and all he could say were his typical taglines, calling the criticisms “knee jerk reactions” (what the hell does that even mean) and telling the American people to do the math themselves and ignore all of the independent analyses in favor of his own analysis. Not too terribly compelling. While I agree that he should get credit for starting a conversation, I think there are far better plans that would be more worthy of the political capital the next president will have to spend to get them passed. It’s amazing how badly Perry sucks. He tried to get aggressive but his attacks were all either low-blows, blatantly hypocritical or were met with vigorous boos by the crowd. Bachmann sounds ever more crazy, proudly touting her plan to build a double-walled fence along the entire Southern border. Romney is once again, unfortunately, the undisputed winner.
3. Life is Precious
Not in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” kind of way, but rather statistically-speaking, life on other planets seems clearly far rarer than lifeless planets (though more common than originally thought). Even if living planets were even-steven with lifeless planets, the universe is so infinitely vast and so thinly dispersed (relatively speaking) that when one extrapolates the likelihood of intelligent life capable of contacting us actually sending a signal that reaches us before our planet or theirs dies, the prospect of extraterrestrial contact is (probably mercifully) woefully unlikely.
This is insane. So far it sounds like the sheriff’s office has gunned down 35 of the nearly 50 exotic animals that escaped from the preserve (I believe this is The Wilds, I can’t think of any other exotic private game preserve in Zanesville, OH). But there are F-ing lions, tigers, bears and wolves roaming free, probably frightened and pissed off, and while I’m impressed that they’ve bagged as many of the animals as they have in such a short amount of time, I imagine there will be a few that elude capture/killing for a little while.
2. Romney Wins (Again); Gingrich Gets His First Bloody Nose; Cain Founders; Perry Falls Flat (Again)
Gingrich got his nose bloodied for the first time last night when he finally went on offense against Romeny on health care. His strategy up to this point (and it’s a good one) has been to steadfastly avoid criticizing his primary opponents; he strayed from it and got his hat handed to him by Romney. Very interesting to watch, and more than a little disappointing. I don’t care what the media, the polls or anyone else says, Cain is foundering. 9-9-9 got hit from every side last night and all he could say were his typical taglines, calling the criticisms “knee jerk reactions” (what the hell does that even mean) and telling the American people to do the math themselves and ignore all of the independent analyses in favor of his own analysis. Not too terribly compelling. While I agree that he should get credit for starting a conversation, I think there are far better plans that would be more worthy of the political capital the next president will have to spend to get them passed. It’s amazing how badly Perry sucks. He tried to get aggressive but his attacks were all either low-blows, blatantly hypocritical or were met with vigorous boos by the crowd. Bachmann sounds ever more crazy, proudly touting her plan to build a double-walled fence along the entire Southern border. Romney is once again, unfortunately, the undisputed winner.
3. Life is Precious
Not in the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” kind of way, but rather statistically-speaking, life on other planets seems clearly far rarer than lifeless planets (though more common than originally thought). Even if living planets were even-steven with lifeless planets, the universe is so infinitely vast and so thinly dispersed (relatively speaking) that when one extrapolates the likelihood of intelligent life capable of contacting us actually sending a signal that reaches us before our planet or theirs dies, the prospect of extraterrestrial contact is (probably mercifully) woefully unlikely.
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