Homelessness is a real and difficult issue. After with talking about it with Andy, I thought this might make for a good topic. Especially in cities further south where there’s a sizeable population of homeless due to the moderate weather year-round, it is a real problem for homeless people and for the cities that don’t know what to do with them. If anyone has ideas or firsthand experiences with homeless people that they want to share or links about cities dealing with homelessness that they would like to post, I would really appreciate it. I’ve linked some stories I found through a quick Google search about homeless laws in Orlando, Gainesville, and many other cities across the US. It’s pretty crazy to think that such a significant amount of our limited resources are aimed at restricting homeless people from doing things, but I suppose that working in the legal system would be kind of boring if some of the useless laws were trimmed from the books.
For a while, I’ve been thinking about trying to do some sort of project about someone contemplating the change from a physical being to one that would exist electronically by transferring the contents of their mind to some other medium as a ways of living forever beyond the bounds of their body.
For this project, they’re keeping a journal because they aren’t sure what consequences the decision will have on their soul, if they will still have the pieces that make them the person they are or just a clever facsimile, the moral implications, etc., and they also keep clippings from articles that they come across. I wanted to come up with basically op-ed style pieces and the usual political speeches, news/magazine stories, and whatever else you can imagine, from doctors, religious figures, politicians, economists, attorneys, entrepreneurs, celebrities, people that have already left their bodies behind, and everyday people both lauding and condemning the idea of trying to escape death by transcending their mortal bodies and existence.
If anyone would like to write a story like that, I would love to see them. It’s hard to assume so many different roles, and new perspectives make for interesting ideas that I might not have considered.
Thanks!
So….
Lately I’ve been kind of consumed with thoughts on the nascent fields of technology like nanotech and genetics. It all started almost a year ago when I heard something on NPR about the topic, and this author, Joel Garreau came on to speak about his book, Radical Evolution, that treats the barreling forward of humans and technology.
Basically, it presents three distinctly different scenarios about the way that humanity could move based on the thoughts and ideas of some of the preeminent minds in the industry. It’s an interesting book if you’re into that kind of thing, and it’s filled to the brim with other recommended resources that he used in creating the book. Definitely a worthwhile read.
Along those lines, I watched Blade Runner again last night. It’s really a classic, and along with the technology bent that I’ve taken lately, it helped to stir some of the other juices that have been roiling about in my mind concerning the core of what makes someone or something sentient and what qualifies them as a real life form deserving of rights and protections. While I’m not advocating that the world will have replicants and floating cars in the next decade, I do believe that in my lifetime, humans will give birth to some sort of technology with critical thinking skills and a weighted decision making process that equals or rivals that of humans.
Would an artificially constructed life form still be a life form? Is it the uncertainty of how life was created that gives it the mystique and ultimately the respect that we as people hold for life and nature? Would knowing that we made something give us the right to unmake it on the same whim? It’s a very interesting conversation to me.
Links to Joel Garreau’s website as well as a link to a site by Ray Kurzweil, a well-known innovator in the field who also publishes a semi-daily email with interesting discoveries in technology are provided. Happy reading!
My blog. Enjoy. Post as much as you want, and discussion is encouraged! Please disagree as intelligently and eloquently as you can with my ideas, or drown me with lavish praise. I really don’t care as long as it’s heartfelt and constructive.