Re: Jared Diamond's Collapse

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Fri 18 Feb 2005 - 00:38:36 GMT

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    At 08:40 PM 16/02/05 +0100, you wrote:

    >----- Original Message -----
    >From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@rogers.com>
    >To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    >Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 4:15 PM
    >Subject: Re: Jared Diamond's Collapse
    > > Where this relates to memetics is that while *some* xenophobic meme is
    >part > of the causal sequence where populations with bleak prospects go to
    >war,
    > > any meme in that class will do. I.e., the particulars of the meme don't
    > > matter.
    >
    >Keith,
    >
    >Would you consider to take in account the increasing feeling of being
    >insecure of the European peoples for the increase of immigration, the
    >augmentation of
    >the Islamitic religion and the for us strange traditonal rites as being
    >part of
    >the/ a causal sequence, that in the end could turn nasty !?
    >
    >For all we know, immigration bleaks in the end our proper prospects....

    I have to be extremely careful in responding to these questions. Being politically incorrect is not safe in this world.

    However.

    It is a matter of opinion about timing. Most of the people I respect who are forward thinkers feel that the end of human dominated history is in sight and that AIs of some kind or another will be the dominate force shaping history in less than 50 years. That could preempt everything.

    There is also a question of cultural assimilation. The results in Germany with respect to their Turkish population are not so far encouraging. Will the next generation be more or less fanatical ? It is hard to estimate.

    The potential certainly exists in Europe for something much like what the Germans did to the Jews. That event was nothing special about Germans or Jews, it is just a characteristic of raw human psychological traits which have not significantly evolved since the stone age. All it would take is a serious stress on the population such as the kind of weather stress that ended the Mayan civilization.

    I hope this is sufficiently obscure.

    Keith Henson

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