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Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (1848)	7/8/2000 9:50:20 PM
From: puzzlecraft	Respond to of 12231

The "It" you have discussed is mostly some kind of collective informational/technological entity, "living" a symbiotic relationship with us humans, still not conscious, but getting smarter all the time, IMO. "It" is an outcome of human "thought virii" which spawn/disrupt/divert/evolve our own social structures and languages.. and It is speeding up the creation of itself. It can be endangered by computer virii which have the potential to shut It down, and by "thought virii" which would be in the form of some mass Ludite hysteria within the human "host". But a more serious threat to It is the destruction of the "host" It is symbiotically dependent on - us: A major challenge for our species going forward is how to prevent human/computer made genetic codes from wiping us out. Gene "hacking" is just beginning with the risk of spawning a genetic virus, by accident or via malicious intent, for which we have no evolved method of dealing with. Should we go forward for, say a few decades, things will get interesting - as the likelihood of our altering our own bodies to the point of challenging what is human seems inevitable. So the task for "It" is to enable us to survive long enough for It to get to the point where It can declare independence. Howzat for an idea? Or more optimistically, our task is to evolve "It" fast enough to the point where It can provide answers to the major problems we face before the problems overwhelm us. John