Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Are We There Yet? David Porush on Virtual Futures, from 1995

My old graduate school buddy speaking at the University of Warwick:


This statement, from the Vimeo abstract, is worth thinking about in the current intellectual context: "...Porush's Law: The advent of the human brain on the stage of the universe makes nature obsolete." That nature is an obsolete notion is a commonplace these days, at least in certain regions of the intellectual world; but it wasn't so common in 1995. What's particularly interesting is Porush's reason for sending nature to the showers, "the advent of the human brain on the stage of the universe."

The advent of the human brain on the stage of the universe.

Yes! That's what makes "nature" obsolete. I do think Porush is right about that. Has anyone else seen that?

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