Jack Seay Weblog

Aug 8, 2004

Life goals:

Life is more than our communications media. Some experience, to be fully appreciated, must be experienced personally, in a particular time and place, with particular people, and can only be partially recorded, if at all. Some things are best kept private or semi-private and are not suitable for public consumption, because of legal, ethical, or aesthetic reasons (see The Truman Show). But to the extent that the media allows us to communicate valuable thoughts and experiences to others, to record it for our own and others' perusal in the future, advanced interconnected, versionable true multi-media technology can provide something very useful. We need the best tools we can possibly build to help us learn from the past, record the present, and build the future.

Loving others involves promoting and striving for justice; eliminating (when we can) suffering, disease, early death, pain (the causes of it), loneliness, alienation, rejection, frustration, and meaninglessness. Technology is very much involved in all of this, as technology includes medicine, comfortable clothing, housing, protection, entertainment, education, food, healthly living, safe transportation, and protection of the environment. No technology has more potential in most of these areas than nanotechnology. Sure, there are potential dangers, as is true of all powerful technologies. Where there is great power to do good, there is also great power to do evil. But that is rarely a good reason to avoid the benefits of technology. The Internet, television, movies, videogames, books, and magazines all have potential evil uses, but much greater uses for good exist for all of these. Doctors sometimes make mistakes, but more often save lives and cure sickness and disease. Cars sometimes kill, but also sometimes save lives, and until better means are developed, will be used. I drive an electric scooter. Perhaps in the near future, the electricity to charge it will be generated by wind or solar power, instead of natural gas, oil, or coal (all of which are dwindling and non-renewable). Everything that isn't perfect can and should be improved or replaced with something better. Better information systems, cities, transportation systems, education, entertainment, clothing (to protect from heat and cold), and medicine can and will be developed.

In writing this, I originally ordered it differently and included a fuller explanation of my goals and motives, which in other contexts could be included. Xanadu would allow the alternate version(s) to be easily reused and linked.