Start of the new cycle

[David Horn]

(10-15-2018, 10:17 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(10-14-2018, 05:25 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(10-09-2018, 10:48 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Maybe we simply exchange one set of exploitative and repressive elites (let us say land-owning aristocrats before World War I) for new ones (fascists in league with old elites) after some illusion of progress.  

It cannot be otherwise unless human nature is improved by clever use of biotechnologies. The mechanisms of ruling change: from religious elites of the Middle Ages, through Victorian acquisitors, up to Information Age tech gurus like Zuckerberg. But the motives of these rules are the same. We need moral enhancement to really make things better.

Technology cannot accomplish moral enhancement.

What it can do is amplify the parts of the brain that show empathy and other desirable traits, and damp-down the parts that trigger aggression and violence .. among other things.  This is not "moral enhancement" in the philosophical sense, just moral modification, hopefully for the better.  I'm not sure it's smart, but I know it will be tried.