"Who Were We?", Artificial Intelligence, Extinction threat, Transhumanism

Porto – *Transhumanism and the Future of Humanity* Conference, October 21st and 22d 2021

Leave a comment

*Transhumanism and the Future of Humanity*

The abstract of the talk I’ll give.

When Max More describes “transhumanism as a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values”, a strong platform is there clearly defined.

As much however as transhumanism may appear as a tool at what may be labelled as Plan A, i.e. preventing the extinction of the human race on Planet Earth, it provides as well a roadmap for alternative strategies in case Plan A were to fail, i.e. space colonisation as Plan B and transmitting the human legacy to intelligent machines, as Plan C.

Continue reading Porto – *Transhumanism and the Future of Humanity* Conference, October 21st and 22d 2021 →

Brexit, Scotland, United Kingdom

Brexit and Aliens, par Duncan Sutherland

Leave a comment

As has been remarked upon already, Brexit will force you to carry a passport and be subject to immigration control at the UK border like the generality of foreign citizens who have no special privileges in respect of admissibility to England’s green and pleasant land. I say England rather than Great Britain or even the United Kingdom, because UK immigration control is based essentially upon an English attitude towards foreigners and an English tradition in keeping their numbers under control. Furthermore, as you know, England’s northern appendage, Scotland, has no wish to impose Brexit immigration controls but is dragged into doing so, just as it was dragged into leaving the European Union, where it was perfectly happy to be. In England, on the contrary, one of its periodic outcries against foreigners and all their works created a demand for something to be done about them. Hence the 2016 Brexit referendum and the the English decision to send you all packing and subsequently to keep you from interfering in English affairs ever again.
Continue reading Brexit and Aliens, par Duncan Sutherland →

Essential questions

The State of Play, By Blake McInerney

Leave a comment

The State of Play

Dogma, theory, law instruct us all
There’s them that’s got and them that’s not
That, without the readies or the wherewithal,
People are nothing but fodder, fit just for the pot.

So strip Creation, Nature, down to the bone,
privatise life ‘til all expire, unbeknown
to all ( save God, whose trappings we now own ! )
become, everlastingly so, free :
free to sanctify inequality,
free to worship Money and Self alone
free to crown the human ape-baboon
future Queens and Kings of Mars or Moon.

Free to oppress and dispossess the poor,
Making Abrahamic chasms wider*,
free to enshrine elites above the law
ensuring none of us may be the wiser,
free to bask as glorious sons of New-Man :
monied incarnations of Space-born Hu-Man.

* Cf. Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Gospel of Luke  16, vv 19 – 31

Pandemic

Forum.eu – The First Year of The Plague. Where Do We Stand?, March 3d 2021

Leave a comment

On Forum.eu. Available as well in French, German, Spanish, Greek and Polish.

Europe and the West have not been able to deliver so far, in contrast to the Chinese, who have been better on this front.

Paul Jorion

Lockdown im Februar 2021. Es gilt weiterhin eine Maskenpflicht.

picture alliance / Daniel Kubirski

The Covid-19 pandemic started over a year ago. Time now for an assessment of how our Western governments reacted to what we more realistically called a plague rather than a crisis in the not so distant past.

Continue reading Forum.eu – The First Year of The Plague. Where Do We Stand?, March 3d 2021 →

United States

United States – November Presidential: The Spectrum of the 1876′ Stalemate

Leave a comment

First in French on July 27

We hear a lot about 1876 these days in the United States. The reason is this: the 1876 presidential election resulted, not in a draw between the two candidates but in the equivalent of a  stalemate in  chess: a block forcing the game to be canceled… which is not – you will agree – an option in a presidential election, therefore, the  outgoing president, General Grant, considered handing over power to the military. We narrowly escaped through bargaining between the two candidates.

This time, however, one of the candidates is not willing to bargain. He has even hinted at (“we’ll see…”) that he would not recognize the result of the election if he were to lose it. The director of his campaign is even clearer: “If the president loses, the election will have been rigged!”  Continue reading United States – November Presidential: The Spectrum of the 1876′ Stalemate →

United States

Has Trump betrayed the values of the Republican Party or revealed its true nature?

Leave a comment

31 August 2020 

If you follow a little bit what I say here, you will know that I believe that there are several tendencies within the Republican Party in the United States and that Trump represents only one of them.

I had the opportunity to mention the existence of a center-right tendency represented during his lifetime by John McCain (died In August 2018), recalling that a close associate of the late senator from Arizona was behind the release to the press of the Steele report.  The most serious accusation of the report, is that Trump is the victim of blackmail by Russia, said to have compromising documents about him, recorded during one of his stays in Moscow. I also pointed out, when speculation abounded about the identity of the whistleblower who revealed the infamous conversation of July 25, 2019, when Trump made the renewal of U.S. military aid to Ukraine conditional on getting compromising information on Joe Biden. Rumor has it that this person was a former close associate of McCain.

Continue reading Has Trump betrayed the values of the Republican Party or revealed its true nature? →

United States

HEARING OF ROBERT MUELLER (07/24/2019)

Leave a comment

The kind persons translating my posts thought it might be a good idea to revive the summary I gave at the time of Robert Mueller’s hearing a little over a year ago. Here it is.

HEARING OF ROBERT MUELLER (07/24/2019)

A SUMMARY BY P. JORION (07/25/2019)

Mr. Robert Mueller is an elderly man. He will turn 75 in a few days (August 7), and several American commentators have complained about this. They were hoping yesterday for someone with more punch, with a more assertive voice. They said that nowadays a 74 year old has more confidence, doesn’t search for his words, as was sometimes the case yesterday.

I guess unlike Robert Mueller and, among others, Paul Jorion, they did not attend the whole 7 hours of hearings, so they did not suffer from exhaustion.

Continue reading HEARING OF ROBERT MUELLER (07/24/2019) →

Ecology, Economy, Extinction threat, United States

Trends-Tendances – The danger zone, August 27 2020

Leave a comment

The danger zone

If someone had solemnly said to me at some point in my life: “in ten years time we will look back and realize that humanity is at a turning point at this very moment, and that its survival depends on the great decisions that must be taken now in a hurry”, I would have asked my interlocutor a question in return, I would have said to him: “Why this moment rather than any other: the human race has gone through many trials”. I might even have added, a bit sarcastically: “Perhaps you know something that the rest of the world doesn’t? Is an asteroid heading straight for us? “».

Continue reading Trends-Tendances – The danger zone, August 27 2020 →

Democracy, United States

Why Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as Vice President is a “good” thing…

Leave a comment

United States – Why Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as Vice President is a “good” thing… – August 12, 2020

If I were a citizen of the United States and I had the opportunity to vote in a municipal or state election, I would certainly find a better candidate than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris on the ballot.

So why say that Biden’s choice of Harris as Vice President is a “good” thing?

Because of the state that the United States, this unfortunate nation, is in right now. It is an “unfortunate nation” because, like the pseudo-democracies of the West (“pseudo” because of the distortions of power created by the existence of colossal fortunes), it was not aware of the fact that its institutions based on goodwill and candor, exposed it to the risk that a predator showing no respect for any of these kind features, might eat it up.

Continue reading Why Joe Biden’s choice of Kamala Harris as Vice President is a “good” thing… →

United States

The Trump Meteorite Fall. Volume 2: “High treason!” soon to be published

Leave a comment

“The Trump Meteorite Fall”, Volume 1: A Misidentified Populist Object

I’ve written in French a two-volume book on the fall of the Trump meteorite. The first volume was issued in October last year. Here is the introduction of the soon to be published second volume.

The Trump Meteorite Fall. Volume 2: “High treason! ”

Introduction

In the first volume of The Fall of the Trump Meteorite, we saw, as its title indicated, a misidentified populist object appear, which not only would easily find its way into the Republican Party primaries, quickly moving into the lead, but, even more astoundingly, would win the presidential election. Of course, he would have benefited from the complex system of the “Electoral College”, which, in attempting to strike a delicate balance between population and territory in the United States, favors rural areas and disadvantages ethnic minorities residing primarily in urban areas.

Continue reading The Trump Meteorite Fall. Volume 2: “High treason!” soon to be published →

Human Complex Systems – Economy – Anthropology – Arts – Fun