CarwilBJ's avatarCarwilBJ's Twitter Archive—№ 20,918

                    1. Ever since I read this piece on Jeffrey Epstein and scientists, I've been contemplating the ideological affinities that made JE's particular sexist, transhumanist madness palatable to people who should know better. nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html
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                    As with Wall Street, Federal prosecutors' offices, political elites, and the ultrarich circles he frequented, scientists need to be asking themselves: What about us made Jeffrey Epstein seem not so disturbing? @onekade
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                  And a very helpful first step is understanding how scientists often embrace a proto-transhumanism. The field guide for this is Mary Midgley's fascinating _Evolution as a Religion: Strange Hopes and Stranger Fears_.
                  oh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their APIoh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their APIoh my god twitter doesn’t include alt text from images in their API
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              1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
                (though these clips are from Midgley's contemporaneous article "Pi in the Sky," in Third Way, March 1996.)
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              Jaron Lanier calls the 21st century update of this belief "cybernetic totalism," which he summarizes here (very much as a critic). edge.org/conversation/one-half-a-manifesto
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            "That biology and physics will merge with computer science (becoming biotechnology and nanotechnology), resulting in life and the physical universe becoming mercurial; achieving the supposed nature of computer software. …"
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          "Furthermore, all of this will happen very soon! Since computers are improving so quickly, they will overwhelm all the other cybernetic processes, like people … at some moment when a new "criticality" is achieved- maybe in about the year 2020. …"
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        "… To be a human after that moment will be either impossible or something very different than we now can know."
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      This strikes me (and Midgley, and to a lesser extent Lanier) as murky soup to believe in. Yet apparently a lot of influential media and tech creators bought into this line of argument.
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  1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
    In that context, Jeffrey Epstein's escapist fantasy for the putatively hyperrich / putatively superintelligent male with an infinite genetic lineage thru mass breeding literally didn't freak people out.
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    1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
      And that's absolutely stunning. It should prompt soul searching about the kinds of emotional rewards that scientists, technologists, and entrepreneur reap from the escapist fantasies of a singular/transhuman future.
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      1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
        Doubly so for the scientists, because ain't none of this scientifically plausible or intellectually defensible.
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        1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
          And here's an insider account of how Epstein was sold to scientists as a billionaire who could provide easy access to (presumably adult) women. newrepublic.com/article/154826/jeffrey-epsteins-intellectual-enabler
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          1. …in reply to @CarwilBJ
            Wired magazine: "The billionaire child rapist bought his way into an elite crowd of intellectuals that defined the last three decades of science, tech, and culture." wired.com/story/jeffrey-epstein-and-the-power-of-networks/
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