To jog the understanding is a greater feat, than to jog the memory: for it takes more to make a man think, than to make him remember. … Gracian #68
George Rebane
When RR launched back in 2007 its purpose was to capture my and my readers’ views on humanity’s efforts to concurrently prepare for or studiously ignore the advent of an epochal milestone in this planet’s ‘Story of Man’. The topic matter and opinions recorded in these pages cover everything from geo-politics, culture, education, economics, history, science, and of course, the Singularity, in the advent of which we now find ourselves. Readers recall that when we do realize that the Singularity has happened – I don’t believe we can predict that hour – all of our prepared plans and hopes will become moot. A new age will start on this blue, brown, and white ball.
Reading postings from some years back, I knew then that my views within most of the listed areas were charitably ‘on the fringes’ of what passed for common wisdom in our media. I was prepared for that since being on the fringes has been a common thread of my life. So I took the obligatory slings and arrows from more mainstream folks as a matter of course. But over the last few years things have begun changing as also noted by my correspondents. My outlandish notions of yesteryear are being discovered and embraced by more and more observers of the human condition. What was a fringe notion on, say, items like unfunded liabilities and its impact on public policy are now repeated as alarums so common as to be in danger of again being ignored because of their repetitions. Or even more significantly, the undeflected growth of systemic unemployment due to accelerating technology and declining education in these pre-Singularity years.
Today one can point to such ideas starting to penetrate even the denser thickets of the Left (while the densest continue to be blissfully immune). I was reminded of this most recently during the critiques of President Obama’s SOU speech. As Exhibit A I offer the 22jan15 commentary – ‘Obama’s American Sniper’ – of Wall Street Journal’s deputy editorial director Daniel Henninger. This respected award-winning journalist and commentator is read internationally as an established voice of America’s Right. The referenced column on the recent SOU speech makes arguments about Obama (as a chronic liar) and America’s geo-politics that could have been drawn straight from my ‘fringe’ commentaries of yesteryear, and now few would find them surprising in the pages of one of the world’s pinnacle (and yes, profitable) publications covering business, politics, and international affairs.
Of course I am heartened to see these ideas begin to leak into the mainstream. And it matters not if the recently arrived make claims to have always been here. The point is that such a migration of ideas spells hope that we may yet reverse course, and, as a society, struggle against all odds back to the tipping point. My hope is that humans will meet the Singularity as a sane species worthy to participate in a trans-human future, instead of having become yet another dying species witnessing the dawn of post-humanity. Such are my musings as I ponder the future of RR, and the efforts required to stay the course. Thoughts?
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