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Why The Future Doesn't Need Us
Atec Февраль 29 2008 20:16:19
Книга только для ознакомления
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Neither should we pursue near immortality without considering the costs, without
considering the commensurate increase in the risk of extinction. Immortality,
while perhaps the original, is certainly not the only possible utopian dream.
I recently had the good fortune to meet the distinguished author and scholar
Jacques Attali, whose bookLignes d'horizons (Millennium, in the English
translation) helped inspire the Java and Jini approach to the coming age of
pervasive computing, as previously described in this magazine. In his new
bookFraternitйs, Attali describes how our dreams of utopia have changed over
time:
"At the dawn of societies, men saw their passage on Earth as nothing more than
a labyrinth of pain, at the end of which stood a door leading, via their death, to
the company of gods and toEternity. With the Hebrews and then the Greeks,
some men dared free themselves from theological demands and dream of an ideal
City whereLiberty would flourish. Others, noting the evolution of the market
society, understood that the liberty of some would entail the alienation of others,
and they soughtEquality."
Jacques helped me understand how these three different utopian goals exist in
tension in our society today. He goes on to describe a fourth utopia,Fraternity,
whose foundation is altruism. Fraternity alone associates individual happiness
with the happiness of others, affording the promise of self-sustainment
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