Gillard as PM and The (Trans) Human Spirit

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Beleaguered by a run of poor opinion polls and lacking support within the parliamentary caucus (with an allegedly abrasive personality), Kevin Rudd stood down as Prime Minister and was replaced by Julia Gillard. There has been a predictable wave of enthusiasm for Australia's first female Prime Minister, and in the first few days she has made a number of popular policy statements (not moving into the Lodge until elected in her own right, support for a carbon tax rather than an ETS, wanting a "sustainable population", affirming rather than swearing an oath to office). I predict in the next day or so she'll have an agreement with the mining companies as well. The only remaining liability for Federal Labor after this is Conroy holding the Ministry of government approved information. Finally, an insightful and predictive article by Greg Milne points out the serious problems Abbot is going to have with Gillard.

Last Sunday gave the address at the Unitarians on The Evolution of the Human Spirit, which is perhaps better understood as the development of human ideas. With broad sociological brushstrokes I took the opportunity to reconstruct the better elements of materialist theories of structured social development with concerns of the means of communication and mode of consciousness. In September it I'll be speaking at the Melbourne summit for The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence on "Social Formations in a Transhumanist World".

Comments

[mellotron_breakfast]

Hopefully this goes better than Canada's first female Prime Minister. If you're not aware, look up the moment in Canadian history when Brian Mulroney stood down due to a horrible drop in public opinion. Campbell took his place, but the negative opinion still carried through to the election, where the party apparently won fewer seats than you'd find in a Honda Civic.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

Singularity Summit AU! Much more exciting than WorldCon. :)

[angel80.livejournal.com]

That article in the Oz - unbelievably sexist. Why can't they just admit that she wipes the floor with Abbott on her debating skills.

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

2nd post in a row on my f-page which is disaproving of Conroy! hmmmmm....
i was very caught up in that predictable wave of enthusiasm. i was completely sucked in by feminist fervour! lol!

[zey.livejournal.com]

I predict in the next day or so she'll have an agreement with the mining companies as well.

The deal was all but complete by Rudd says "Twiggy Forrest" (apparently not a bear porn name!), which was what led to that "the super-tax is dead" comment in the media last week. (To get that sort of back-down and enthusiasm, Rudd probably promised something to compensate the industry for their fear, pain and suffering :/)

Still, if Gillard can get some political mileage with the swingers by claiming the back-down was all her own effort, best of luck to her.

Singularity Summit

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds like an interesting topic you are speaking on. Do you have an abstract?
Will you be attending the whole Summit?
I will look forward to your presentation.

Adam