[extropy-chat] Luddite Leadership: The New Atlantis

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Greg Burch <gregburch at gregburch.net> wrote:
> http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/2/keiper.htm
> 
> that shows a very good grasp of the possibilities of
> Drexlerian nanotechnology.  What's important here is
> not what the article is (other, similarly clued-in
> articles are becoming common outside the narrow
> confines of transhumania), but WHERE it is.  "The
> New Atlantis" has clearly been formed as a rallying
> point for the anti-progress party, and that they are
> zeroing in on Drextech should give us all cause for
> concern.

Actually, I find it most refreshing that even our
enemies have such a good field guide to the facts.
It's biased in the opinions it offers in addition to
the facts, true, but it means we can argue the facts
rather than made-up hysteria.

> Another article in the first issue deals with
> transhumanism square-on, calling it "extinctionism"
> because it posits progress beyond the human:
> 
> http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/1/rubin.htm
> 
> This article discusses Moravec and Kurzweil and will
> set the teeth of a transhumanist on edge, but again,
> what's important is that the discussion is happening
> in a forum designed to define policy.

I snickered as I read it.  I did not see a single
argument made there that has not been made, and
thoroughly countered, elsewhere.  For instance, the
sharp discontinuity between human and uploaded mind:
there have been ways proposed to utterly eliminate
that discontinuity.

If this is the best our enemies - and I use the term
deliberately, even if the immediate battle is for
hearts and minds rather than lives - can muster, as it
seems it may be, we have little to worry about.  (We
can't slack off, of course, but this is a level of
opposition we can handle.)