[sciborg2]

A discussion of alien civilizations let do [lead to] someone mentioning this when I suggested the SA is why we'v not heard from any one else in the galaxy:

Desire Modification: the ultimate technology

However, not everyone will end up in the same cul-de-sac. The resultant "clades" of humans will be very, very different from each other, much more different than people are now. This will make human interaction very weird. In fact, in a sci-fi story I'm writing, I refer to the rapid adoption of d-mod as "The Weirdening", and I think the Weirdening would (will?) be even weirder and more important and less predictable than the "Singularity".

However, after all this talk of zombie slaves and Weirdenings, I should note that I personally think that d-mod will be pretty benign. Most people just want to be happier, more motivated, kinder versions of the people they already are. Although we could conceivably become a planet of bizarre posthumans, I think the more likely outcome is that we'll end up pretty close to where we started. But the extra life satisfaction that we'll get from d-mod, even so, will represent a bigger a boost to utility and happiness than any technology before or after. It will put the lie to the old (and wrong) idea that technology doesn't change human nature.

[Madness]

Junkies...

I'm not sure that his article captures the breadth of the 'Weird,' adequately.

[Callan S.]

Escalon Bloom

The pivotal element is that no one in such a 'weirdening' would think themselves weird. There's the feedback loop of self modified notions of normal being modified by notions of normal being modified by...etc. Run a blank sheet of paper through a photo copier, then the copy through the copier - again and again. Eventually it'll come out black...or worse - near black.

Take the idea of 'kinder' as coming from some hardwired base lines in the human brain - take that as the norm. So what happens when the complicated enactions of someone being kinder alters the baseline in the brain that notion of kindness comes from?

Well, the new modified 'kinder' will seem just as reasonable as the quote seems to make it out as reasonable. But then it modifies itself again, and the new version seems just as reasonable.

Are all changes reasonable? The inchorai think themselves lovers, on the basis of such change.

We ascribe a blank check to 'kinder', treating it with an unlimited amount of reasonableness, as in the quote. Because typically (though not always) in world born people, the amount filled out on the check always remains the same, anyway.

We are in no way familiar with anyone being able to rewrite the cheque.

[sciborg2]

Excellent post Callan!

I think you have the right of it, how shifts in what seems reasonable can lead us to Inchie morality without us realizing how far we've deviated from normal.

Brings new meaning to Aurang whining to Kellhus about being damned for violating boundaries of skin.

[Madness]

Not that I inherently agree with everything Callan wrote, though he's mostly onto something.

Furthermore, we privilege social practices over others. Few social biases are more intense than conformism and the divisions by ostracizing that takes place thereafter. We're too lazy to bolster or change our biases on 'our own' but once we can be better people through insta-chang...