Breaking Down Barriers

In the video Moral Technology Conference 2016: Day 1 Lecture 1, NIcanor Perlas advocates participating in global conversations which break down the barriers of compartmentalization.

I share his belief that whoever has the money and power, their vision will be the de facto world we are living in, Those with the power make the prominent worldview, the only worldview that is allowed to be taken seriously. Whether or not it is in keeping with reality it will eventually become reality.

He continues this discussion in a second video in which he talks about the inevitability of artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness: And asks questions like, what is life? Where does morality fit in?

These conversations are a vital necessity at this time. The greater the diversity of participants the better. We need to learn to listen to what others say especially if they are coming from a different worldview than our own.

7 thoughts on “Breaking Down Barriers

  1. I share his belief that whoever has the money and power, their vision will be the de facto world we are living in, Those with the power make the prominent worldview, the only worldview that is allowed to be taken seriously. Whether or not it is in keeping with reality it will eventually become reality.

    “In every age, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class” — Marx and Engels, The German Ideology

  2. Kantian Naturalist:

    I share his belief that whoever has the money and power, their vision will be the de facto world we are living in, Those with the power make the prominent worldview, the only worldview that is allowed to be taken seriously. Whether or not it is in keeping with reality it will eventually become reality.

    “In every age, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class” — Marx and Engels, The German Ideology

    True enough. But the exponential growth of technology has a tremendous effect the power made available to those who determine our future and the potential for unleashing all sorts of ills on the planet.

    Here is a more up to date talk by Perlas. I’m in the middle of watching it, and it can be a bit difficult to hear what he is saying, but it includes some interesting facts.

  3. Nothing marx or engels ever said was true.
    The better equation as i see it IS that conclusions that dominate come from the forceful people in a area. they may have money or power but thats besides the point. christianity, later protestantism, came to be dominant but unrelated to those who had power and money.
    its all about forcefulness. whether military, moral, intellectual, political, mob.
    Democracy was to stop this and make the common man the forcefulo one as far as government went.

  4. Robert Byers:
    Nothing marx or engels ever said was true.

    In my opinion, your opinion that nothing they ever said was true, is not true.

    The better equation as i see it IS that conclusions that dominate come from the forceful people in a area. they may have money or power but thats besides the point. christianity, later protestantism, came to be dominant but unrelated to those who had power and money.
    its all about forcefulness. whether military, moral, intellectual, political, mob.
    Democracy was to stop this and make the common man the forcefulo one as far as government went.

    What does dominant mean if not to have dominion over, power and control over others. the history of western society is an example of power being transferred from kings and priests, to secular governments, to corporate businesses. At the present time our seats of learning are controlled by those who can provide the hard cash.

  5. CharlieM: In my opinion, your opinion that nothing they ever said was true, is not true.

    What does dominant mean if not to have dominion over, power and control over others. the history of western society is an example of power being transferred from kings and priests, to secular governments, to corporate businesses. At the present time our seats of learning are controlled by those who can provide the hard cash.

    Yes dominion over others is always the great issue of mankind. Starting with our parents over us.
    YEs overthrowing the will of a few, Kings, to the will of morem democracy etc, is our history.
    I don’t agree corporate business has taken over the government. i do agree they try to dominate in things they should not but so do left wing universities. Its everywhere.
    Its in ideologies like feminism to name but one.
    Our seats of learning are controled by those not chosen by the people butb also the people by way of government.
    This blog, TSZ, is case in point. i don’t know if money is needed however its controled by those who do the work, momney, moderate it. they are the power. nOt the people even if there was 5-10 thousand posters. they are the boss. Yet they would say they work within common beliefs of the people. so is this blog a democratic law obeying blog or just controled from the whim of the bosses. Its probably mostly democratic and some elite power not affected by democracy/law.
    Who is the boss/ Is it really those who provide the money like corporations in seats of learning? Its up to the people to lay the rules and enforce them corporations can be made to obey.

  6. The videos I posted were taken from the Moral Technologies Conference 2018, and more can be found here

    From day 3, lecture 2 Perlas discusses life in relation to three unsolved mysteries; life, consciousness, and reflective consciousness.

    Everyone agrees that the appearance of life is beyond the boundary of chance. In his opinion the present neo-Darwinian model is collapsing.

    In the previous lecture he says:

    …if you think we’re just biological machines it’s a huge contradiction because: why worry about AI safety? There’s no basis for worrying about AI safety, right? We’re machines anyway and we are creating more sophisticated machines that are super-intelligent. So what’s the big worry? So why are all these scientists who are in AI, about 10000 of them already signed a petition all over the world, a declaration on safety?…

    To be concerned about safety:

    That kind of thinking can only come if we have freedom and we are not biological machines

    Science, if it is to be done rightly, is a search for the truth. We all start from a position of having a particular world view. We all have a prior belief system from which we begin our search. Modern science was born out of a reaction against an earlier belief in the supernatural. Methodological naturalism was an attempt to focus on the world around us while leaving aside the question of the existence of any higher realities.

    Now we are beginning to see a reaction against the path that modern science is taking. Many thinkers within the scientific community have overstepped the bounds of methodological naturalism and now, instead of leaving aside the question of higher realities, claim that such realities do not exist.

    In all this we see a sort of Hegelian dialectic in our search for truth. This is how we progress.

    But if we do not want to be destroyed by our own technology then we all have to work together to ensure that it is carefully controlled for the benefit of our future and the future of all life on earth.

  7. Robert Byers: Yes dominion over others is always the great issue of mankind. Starting with our parents over us.
    YEs overthrowing the will of a few, Kings, to the will of morem democracy etc, is our history.I don’t agree corporate business has taken over the government. i do agree they try to dominate in things they should not but so do left wing universities. Its everywhere.
    Its in ideologies like feminism to name but one.
    Our seats of learning are controled by those not chosen by the people butb also the people by way of government.
    This blog, TSZ, is case in point. i don’t know if money is needed however its controled by those who do the work, momney, moderate it. they are the power. nOt the people even if there was 5-10 thousand posters. they are the boss. Yet they would say they work within common beliefs of the people. so is this blog a democratic law obeying blog or just controled from the whim of the bosses. Its probably mostly democratic and some elite power not affected by democracy/law.
    Who is the boss/ Is it really those who provide the money like corporations in seats of learning? Its up to the people to lay the rules and enforce them corporations can be made to obey.

    The general situation is that we are being controlled by economics. From research grants to the money making schemes of the so called leader of the free world, it is all about financial control for selfish ends.

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