[extropy-chat] Humanity 2.0

[Charlie Stross]

On 30 Nov 2003, at 16:36, Greg Burch wrote:

> How to write an article about transhumanism for the mainstream press:
>
> 1.  Attend a WTA or ExI meeting.
> 2.  Make note of how geeky the attendees are, especially that most of 
> them are young, male, lack tans and seem to be socially maladroit.
> 3.  Mention Eric Drexler and Hans Moravec.

[ snip rest of accurate list ]

Well, y'know, they used to act the same way towards members of the 
British Interplanetary Society in the 1930's and 1940's. Or to Verner 
Von Braun's pals (before the Wehrmacht got involved). And presumably 
the original home computing clubs came in for the same treatment. 
Transhumanism is, if anything, a hell of a lot bigger than any of the 
above -- and it raises profound questions once you get beyond the 
initial reaction.

There are really important legitimate concerns that will occur to the 
public as transhumanism becomes an item on the political agenda, and 
they need to be addressed urgently; for example, is transhumanism 
compatible with democracy, or even with the Enlightenment thesis that 
humans are of equivalent worth before the law? Yes, these are indeed 
being addressed in the internal political debates on this list -- but 
as long as the debates hinge around minutiae of libertarian doctrine 
they're going to talk right past those people who aren't interested in 
libertarianism (but who have the ability to yell at their 
representatives to pass legislation). I fear that when transhumanism 
goes public, the actual transhumanist movement is doomed to be 
marginalized (at best) or persecuted (at worst), because the mainstream 
public will look at it in a very different light.

This happened in the 1990's when the internet reacted public 
consciousness. I was there. I saw what happened. The initial ignorance 
and pigeonholing wasn't pretty, and neither were the consequences. 
(Great Firewall of China, RIAA/MPAA persecution of people who use file 
sharing tools, mad copyright absolutists in the driving seat, 
government attempts to monitor everything ... and that's just 
scratching the surface.)

Here's a clue: we need good propaganda, and we need it fast. The 
difference between propaganda and press coverage being that propaganda 
is made, while press coverage is forced upon you.


-- Charlie (working on some propaganda, due from Ace Books in mid-2005)