What will it look like?

In other news, I've had the priveledge of contemplating the end of the world recently. My english teacher had me read an article about the dangers of GNR (genetics, nanotechnology, and robots) and how they will probably be the demise of humanity. Just prior to this assignment, I listened to an audiobook called Collapse by Jared Diamond which was all about collapsed civilazations, collapsing civilizations and how our civilization is in grave danger of collapsing. My next english paper will probably be all about the end of the world but here is a little primer.

We have a few routes to go, although I believe in reality we will combine all of them into a jumble that has about a 50/50 probablility of erring in favor of our survival as a species and a small probability of reaching utopia.

Actually before the gruesome stuff, I'd like to say that there is a cool book that I was turned on to by the article on GNR. It is actually about how our idea of utopia has changed throughout time. Originally we wanted Eternity by dying and joining "heaven" in an unknown and unspecified utopia. Then we moved to a more rational utopian ideal where the Greeks thought we would create a perfect city and Liberty would flourish. Later humans noticed the power of the market economy (based on the idea of liberty) and it's exclusive nature so they imagined that a utopian society would hold Equality above all else. In Jacques Attali's book he describes a fourth utopia which I find fascinating: Fraternity. Bill Joy says Fraternity's "foundation is altruism. Fraternity alone associates individual happiness with the happiness of others, affording the promise of self-sustainment." Just contemplate this for a moment and you will realize a couple things.

Ok, I've given up on doomsday, we're going to talk about utopia based on Fraternity.

The first thing I notice when I think about Fraternity's base of altruism is that altruism can also often be considered the foundation of morality. Actually I've read recently that several atheistic theories exist for the foundation of morality, but I will argue that while we may not found our current morality on altruism, we should. In a society where we base our happiness on that of others, we will be immimently connected and ultimately moral. The puzzle pieces fit quite well in my eyes. The only thing I have to contemplate is how to get there. I guess I should read Attali's book (called Fraternités).