no, not really.
too many humans are willingly ignorant because it's easy for them to accept what they've been told their whole lives, without question. I don't think they can be helped, nor would I want to help them. they have to help themselves, or die like they lived.. willingly ignorant.

now let me ask, because I honestly don't know...did Toffler actively endorse Newt Gingrich and his policies? because if so, that doesn't sit well with me.

it would also be easy for people to misinterpret his works to fit an agenda, the way Nazi Germany did with Nietzsche's Will To Power.

so this means you're not a transhumanist? I just figured since you said you were in the biotech industry...



Dude, Gingrich wrote a forward for one of the newer editions of the "Third Wave." Didn't you see that youtube clip of The Tofflers & Gingrich: A Love Story? & Yes, he endorsed Gingrich's policy, he practically helped write the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Gingrich's PFF Think Tank (group that tried to gut the FDA) still has a published version of Toffler's "Internet Magna Carta" on their website: http://www.pff.org/issues-pubs/futureinsights/fi1.2magnacarta.html. Newt (as house of rep speaker during the "republic revolution" of the mid-90s) made many speeches on Toffler in the push towards telecommunication deregulation. Even Toffler himself presented at many of Gingrich's republican conferences (ie. Aspen Summit) as well. Their gay love affair went so far that Gingrich devoted entire two-hour long sessions teaching Third Wave in his college courses. Michael Kelly did a piece in the New Yorker in '95 on Newt Gingrich saying, "Tofflerianism is his religion." Which isn't hard to believe when Gingrich said things like, "You know, Alvin Toffler…my eyes teared-up reading that stuff."

A lot of people don't really understand how much of a god send the internet and Toffler-esque rhetoric was for conservative republican free market fundamentalists. Or how it brought together in the '90s, the techno-libertarians, '60s counterculture (Stewart Brand Whole Earth Network), & the conservative New Right...The internet was the Ayn Rand haven that libertarian conservatives always dreamed of, that the communalists failed at in the 60s, and that the new right republican revolution of the mid 90's could exploit the shit out of. & Now, we got gotdamn robotics running the markets and a collapsing global digital economy. & To top it off, the largest activist movement in this country is the libertarian Koch brother funded Tea Party...I think it's safe to say that a Mark Zuckerberg-type will be president by 2020 the way we're headed...



It would be comparable if Nietzche were alive during Hitler's time, and actively worked with him. But thanks for bringing up that point b/c it illuminates the eugenicist roots of transhumanism and their idealistic Übermensch.

I provide a service, as a bloodborne pathogen analyst, to the industry. I'm not involved with life/intelligence extension, and have no interest in getting involved. I'm more interested in working with analytical instruments, and providing the data they generate.

and I'm not interested in any radical ideals proposed by the aforementioned authors and policy-makers. the only sane policy-making position is one that observes that change in the socioeconomic (and environmental, for that matter) climate is a constant, thus acclimation/adaptation is essential. There's no point in remaining stagnant, politically or socially. nothing risked, nothing gained.

couldn't agree more brutha, and thank you for your work in bloodborne pathogen research.

i really recommend this book for you benzyme:



http://www.amazon.com/Fr...rculture+to+cyberculture

Thanks guys, for giving this thread some traffic. Also for the recs.

What i've been hearing lately

Besides RAW (please consider Prometheus Rising as well as the Cosmic Trigger) some of my personal favorites these last months are

- The Shape of Inner Space, by Shing-Tung Yau
- The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot
- Psychedelic Information Theory, by James L. Kent

fairbanks, have you checked out the attitude page recently?

I'm about half way through Dennis's The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss, and highly reccomend it, especially if your a fan of Terrence or Dennis's work.

I would highly recommend David Foster Wallace's non-fiction essays... they are short-ish, averaging 30 or so pages and have some hilarious and brilliant insights into many things, though particularly American millennial culture.

"A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again" is pretty awesome... essays on David Lynch, Midwestern farm festivals, and a cruise ship nightmare. They are similar to fiction in many ways, particularly for the entertainment value... but they have great insights to the plight of American culture and so much more. I am a huge fan of this man's work, and this is a great example. A pleasure to read.

sorry if I offended. I just say what I think, and mean what I say. if it doesn't fit with the nexus mold, they can by all means edit it out.

I read that book a few days after it came out. I loved it

That's not how this place works. People behave according to the rules or they don't get to play. Your behavior in this thread IMO is right on the edge.

I understand you feel strongly about these topics, but there's better ways to discuss than the display in this thread. There's nothing wrong with being blunt or frank, but I find making assumptions about other people, generalizing, and attacking them a bit over the top.

Try to tone it down a bit.

cheers

oh and for the book recommendation I recommend "Grit and Grace" by Ken Wilber.

Awesome UC! Yeah I love in the beginning how he sort of credits the whole book to DMT; the reason behind why he decided to write it. I also loved the section near the beginning about when he first encountered smoked DMT and his experiences. A++

Fairbanks, I' like to hear whats up with your beef with transhumansism. I like to read Imminist myself a lot and I haven't detected much bullshit from those guys as of yet...

Start with the origin of the term transhumanism, coined by Thomas Huxley of the British Eugenics Society, as a redressing of eugenics after it's Nazi defamation. Continue research on transhumanism and eugenics, and let me know what you think. I'm too tired to write out my full critique of it all.

Here's some articles from The New Atlantis (Journal of Tech & Science):

http://www.thenewatlanti...ions/topic/transhumanism

goodnite john.

[quote=jungleheart] I'm in a book club so looking for some book recommendations from Nexians. My favorite topics are the environment, health, politics, geography, economics, philosophy, etc. Please make the suggestions non-fiction. I really look forward to seeing what you are reading.

Best regards,
J

[/quote=jungleheart]













Enjoy!!