File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2001/lyotard.0101, message 15


Date: Mon, 29 Jan 2001 17:05:25 -0500
From: hugh bone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: singularity



Steve,

Haven't read Post-Modern Fables - is any of it available on the Web?

Regards,
Hugh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


> Hugh and Eric
>
> doesn't Lyotard effectively repeat the singularity and transhuman myth in
the
> 'post-modern' fables...
>
> sdv
>
> hugh bone wrote:
>
> > Eric et. al.
> >
> > I found McKenna at the "dromo" link below where he made more substantive
> > comments.
> > The Esalen event seemed to be a cocktail party without peanuts or
drinks.
> >
> > See other comments below, marked ** .
> >
> > http://www.dromo.com/fusionanomaly/singularity.html
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> > > hugh bone wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Vernor Vinge is a "new" name to me, so was surprised to
> > > > > learn that he wrote many books, and found his account of the
> > > > "singularity",
> > >
> > > I'm not really that familar with Vernor Vinge either.  I know he is a
> > > science fiction writer who has won big awards and is famous for a
> > > novella entitled "True Names" which prophesized cyberspace long before
> > > William Gibson ever came on the scene.
> >
> > ** He was a math professor at San Diego State.
> > >
> > > One of my reasons for mentioning singularity is that this is a
> > > contemporary site where science is merging into the domain of
religion. >
> > What liberals once considered the wackiest part of fundamentalism >
> > Christianity; namely its end-time rhetoric, is now being granted a new >
> > currency by a strange fusion of science and technology that hurtles >
> > towards the Omega point of a posthuman, trans-human apocalypse, a >
machinic
> > eschatology. (This might be described as the metanarrative to
> > > end all other metanarratives.)
> >
> > **They could wear sandals and sandwich themselves between placards
> > proclaiming "The End is Nigh".
> >
> > I think there is no metanarrative yet.  Only "petite peu" narratives.
Not
> > in physics, not in philosophy, not in religion.
> > I've counted about 20 areas of complexities that threaten us.
> > By concentrating on abstractions, and slicing those abstractions them
into
> > ever tinier areas of specialization, the experts get further and further
> > from the common "sense" world in which we live out our  "be-ing".
> >
> > > I don't know if you are familiar with Terence McKenna or not, but,
> > > during his lifetime he also espoused a similar mystical doctrine of
> > > singularity, based on the notion that history is rushing towards an
> > > encounter with some mysterious hyperspatial object that will soon
> > > transform everything.
> >
> > ** The mere concept of transhuman makes us think more about  "humanity",
and
> > that should help.
> >
> > > Sometimes called the Timothy Leary of the esctasy punk set, he
devaloped
> > > a popular alternative philisophy which reveals similar reverberations
to
> > > the technological singularity espoused by Vinge.
> > >
> > > You can sample some of McKenna's views, recorded at an interesting
> > > conference that covers a number of topics at the following site:
> > >
> > >
> > > http://www.well.com/user/suscon/esalen/dayone.html
> > >
> > >
>
>
>


   

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