Re: >H starlogo philosophy project

[Michael Nielsen <mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu>]

Transhuman Mailing List

On Mon, 30 Aug 1999, Kathryn Aegis wrote:

> Remi writes:
> >I'm sure anyway, about one thing. If we want transhumanist  community to
> >succeed, it has to be a think tank, and a think tank produces, well,
> >thinking. and this means work, and work means working groups.

I don't think I agree that "it has to be a think tank", or with the
assertions which follow, if the community is to succeed.

For me, the community succeeds already as a place to bounce a certain type
of idea off people.  The "canonical books" thread was a perfect example:
by writing my thoughts down I clarified them, I got some useful
suggestions from other people, and hopefully stimulated some thoughts in
return.  There is, as yet, no practical "outcome" from this discussion
from my point of view, but it will influence actions of mine in the
future.

Of course, what you are suggesting would also be terrific, and to a
certain extent is already happening as a result of the efforts of people
on this and related lists.

> >And
> >working groups, in their turn, means some kind of specialization. The
> >question you address is how this specialized work can go out its ghetto
> >to enrich the whole community. and this is the important question of
> >interdisciplinary work. certainly a difficult problem to solve, and I
> >certainly have not  any definitive reply about it.

Something I'm very much looking forward to is a greatly enhanced ability
to collaborate over long distances in the near future.  

The short-term short wish-list:  a huge write-on flat-screen display to
replace the whiteboard in my office.  Subpanels showing live video of
collaborators around the globe.  A large subpanel showing a shared
"working space" which we can all write on and manipulate.  All discussions
automatically archived, to be played back, manipulated, or shared with
others.

Michael Nielsen
Ph: 626 395 8431    Email: mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu                 
Fax: 626 793 9506   Web: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html



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