tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32572176.post115644304186732232..comments2023-06-15T01:35:53.018-07:00Comments on PJ's Big Adventure: Are You Bilingual?PJ Manneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01999801092654937681noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32572176.post-61247546556874030882010-05-19T07:03:39.152-07:002010-05-19T07:03:39.152-07:00I recently came across your blog and have been rea...I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.<br /><br />Lucy<br /><br />http://businesseshome.netmarionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04304074675371820829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32572176.post-1156634616026109362006-08-26T16:23:00.000-07:002006-08-26T16:23:00.000-07:00I am computer illiterate. I don't know programmin...I am computer illiterate. I don't know programming from pilgrimages, so I didn't know what ++ means. Thanks for the lesson.<BR/><BR/>I can't claim the H+ notation for my own, but I have certainly embraced it, as have others like Russell Rukin (www.hplusart.org -- visit his site -- it's great!) and have made it more common.<BR/><BR/>I have said in other essays that I find the term transhumanism offputting, hence my use of H+. And you are right. We are all just H. The + is aspirational, in my opinion.<BR/><BR/>My entire raison d'etre in discussing H+ issues is how to communicate them to everyone. On Michael Anissimov's blog, Michael made a comment that all transhumanists have a high IQ, and implied that we shouldn't bother with those who don't. I think that's dangerous. elitist thinking. If we can't discuss this with everyone, then what's the point of the discussion? Isn't it "humanity" we're talking about? Hence the need for bilingualism.<BR/><BR/>Thank YOU for writing!PJ Manneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01999801092654937681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32572176.post-1156461900017599762006-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:002006-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00I like the "H+" notation, although one might posit...I like the "H+" notation, although one might posit "H++" as a skosh (to use another technical term) more consistent with what one might subjectively interpret as the spirit of the notation. As you likely already know, "++" means "increment" in programmerish syntax. "++" generally counts off an iterative process that builds upon a base case; in this case, H. <BR/><BR/>But if I reverse engineer that thinking a bit, it's not too much to speculate that you may have already thought through all of this and perhaps intentionally shortened H++ to H+ ... for the very reasons described in this post! That is to say, one "+" is good enough for most folks to implicitly grasp. Or, maybe that is not the way that H+ really came about, but it might be a useful fiction to further illustrate the point of bilingualism.<BR/><BR/>The lesson: While H++ may be syntactically accurate, H+ is more widely accessible to a general audience; so we should consider using H+ to better connect with that wider audience.<BR/><BR/>Yet, it is also reasonable to ask, how accessible do the self-selected WE actually want the discussion to be, for now? I might get hammered for saying so, but there are MANY nonplussed (oh, the double entendre!) H-class humans who embody tendencies and ideals that We Generally might not want continued into the H+ configuration!<BR/><BR/>And there it is, always back to economics and politics, right? Which tendencies and who decides, right? Even among the most staunchly apolitical scientific technical types, these processes take place all the time; formally and informally. "With, without, and after all, it's what the fighting's all about," as an immortal Pink Floyd anthem put it.<BR/><BR/>All this brings me to an idea that might approximate an actual POINT to this rambling comment: at least initially, all H+ers are mere H. All too H, in fact. While extro-trans-post-meta-humanism is clearly *the* meta theme of this, and the next several generations, there is likely to be no clear demarcation between H and adding the +. Are cochlear implant recipients H+ yet? When do you get to add the +? When mood stabilizers clear the fog and the noise and make one focused and productive again? Is A Beautiful Mind an H+ mind?<BR/><BR/>These are among the most relevant questions of our times, worthy of undivided lifelong attention. Yet, all too often, I am disappointed to find my own navel-gazing ramblings on the prenatal H+ condition regress to the quotidian, conflicted, and needlessly complex; to the all-too-present-tense nonplussed Human sociotechnopolitical mayhem that constitute today's headline news and hence, today's modal cultural reality. Rising above and beyond that modal noise ... in a healthy and sustainable way, may well be H+ adaptive skill #1.<BR/><BR/>Personally, I justify my own plentiful shortcomings in terms of a theoretical H+ suitability with a hopeful, yet utterly unexpectant, "I'm workin' on it," and try to take just one day at a time. And on that basis, any day that increases the number of active blogs on this essential subject, I call a Good Day. Thanks for writing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com