Seasons

Prob: Ah, yes, I was able to find some that didn't seem to be internal, and when I changed them, it worked! Thanks!

Isn't it nice to know that the same 'civilization' that brought you weapons of mass destruction, Paris Hilton, and 'Dubya' is rapidly learning how to tinker with our brains?

And if WMD, PH and W weren't bad enough, once they get the hang of programming them, Microsoft will patent the neuron and make us all pay licensing fees to use their technology. And if you don't pay, they'll repossess your brain.

Has anyone seen the movie "Dark City"? In that movie aliens alter reality with a thought process called tuning, and experiment on human memories by injecting memories in chemical form directly into the frontal lobes. There is no need to reposes a brain if one controls the memories and functions. You can make people believe working and paying Microsoft are the most important things in life, or even work themselves to death. Talk about your viral marketing and chemical romance.

Great film

Of course, if we've all been "upgraded" with the requisite Microsoft Mindware service pack, there's no way of knowing that we're not already there, but have just been programmed not to notice.

And there's no need to "make people believe working and paying Microsoft are the most important things in life", if you can make them think they're actually doing something else (or even the exact opposite.)

I can see a new direction in evangelical religion: the convert accepts a 'baptism' of chemicals that will implant unbreakable faith... all voluntary, of course, although, to be sure, people do things in the heat of the moment, under peer group pressure, that they wouldn't have done after quiet, solitary reflection.

All we have to do is sell our chemical svengoli as a weight loss or anti aging product, and the minds of humanity are our playground.

Isn't it nice to know that the same 'civilization' that brought you weapons of mass destruction, Paris Hilton, and 'Dubya' is rapidly learning how to tinker with our brains?

Actually, this particular research is coming out of Israel. Given the history of that particular government, that's scary too (note: the Israeli governmet is not the same as the Jewish people or citizens of Israel anymore then the US government is the same as the average American).

I can see a new direction in evangelical religion: the convert accepts a 'baptism' of chemicals that will implant unbreakable faith

It is Brother Jerome's contention that heaven will be so ordered that all hard toil will be indistinguishably transubstantiated into the most delightful play, so by that stage it will of course be voluntary (though there will surely be many Microsoftian false prophets to deal with in the meantime!) Once you have an infinity of processing resources at your disposal, the overheads involved in reprogramming perceived reality to the optimal enjoyment of every individual consciousness (as well as in perfectly emulating and perfecting every possible conscious entity in accordance with Lovejoy's principle of plenitude,) are trivial.
But then, I did catch him reading Kolmogorov the other day, so perhaps this Panglossian tendency is only to be expected.

It seems to me that the role of governments/science is to strip us bare of everything that makes us human. I guess the ultimate goal is to make us compliant. I can see a sad world where the AI has more heart and soul than man.

But how could we be fully human if we were not faced sometimes with dehumanising processes? There could be no good if there were no evil, and a tree doesn't grow strong and healthy by being entirely shielded from buffeting winds and scorching sun and pounding rains. It grows spindly and weak, and soon withers.

Even if this doesn't look much like the best of all possible worlds, I can't help thinking we will meet the challenge and be the stronger for it - it will all work out alright in the end.
As sister Julian of Norwich puts it "Sin is behovely, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

That's true, but it's bad enough that life is faced with war, famine and plague. It just seems a bit much to tamper with mind and soul.