Mega turbo uber smart hippy stuff

  On 10/6/2010 at 8:13 PM, chenGOD said:

selective empathy I can understand but selective apathy?

Apathy means lack of interest - to be selective means to have some level of interest.

I see where you're coming from with this but I think that is an exaggeration to say selective apathy would be an oxymoron and that it's anything more than decisively choosing what you no longer care about at all. Selective can imply that you have interest but I don't think that interest is necessarily a cornerstone to the word selection. It's just a smart choice that could be void of human characteristics in this context I think.

I could probably do better explaining my points but you get what I mean.

  On 10/6/2010 at 8:13 PM, chenGOD said:

lumpenprol - nah your empathy level is fine, after all, who else is going to care about the chinese hookers?

LOL btw

Just watched the video, the idea is kind of "well, duh!" I thought, but the animation is fantastic!

"well, duh!" maybe but... the competency in which Rifkin communicates his opinions on humanity is amazing to me. He is a good writer as well.

true, agreed. The main idea seems to be the connection between means of communication and empathy with others, which I 100% agree and you can see happening around us. The biological stuff seems a bit unnecessary to bring into it. The idea that we might find some untapped facet of the human animal at this point in time (short of actual gene manipulation) seems a bit forced. The whole empathy part actually sounds pretty Rousseau-ian. I think the bottom line is true though, the internet will be a significant component of helping us view humanity as one whole, along with the general worsening of our overall situation over time, and increases in our understanding of how the natural environment works (pollution and how to solve it). Will we ever get to the point where we can share energy like we share info on the internet? Hope so.

So again, basically the Brahmans had it right is what he's saying.