[extropy-chat] Reason Magazine Online on TransVision 2004

[Adrian Tymes]

--- "Reason ." <reason at longevitymeme.org> wrote:
> Here's another one from a chap who, I feel, totally
> misses the point of the exercise - wearing the arts
> blinders and blundering through reality...
> 
> http://www.bmezine.com/news/pubring/20040812.html

I had the opposite reaction to his article.  He's
arguing that we should be doing more doing and less
talking - to him, we're the ones wearing the blinders
and blundering.  And then there's this:

> Scientists need to embrace the reality of human
> interaction and start to include marketing as an
> important part of transhumanist dialog.  Body
> modification for example is successful not just
> because it's "right", but also because it's cool and
> accessible.

"Memetic engineering" overlaps "marketing" so much
that the two could arguably be called almost one and
the same, just different takes on the same idea.  We
do not envision, say, augmented reality getting in
the way of reality with a mass of mundane problems -
interference with the existing social uses of the eyes
chief among them - and yet this is one of the things
keeping this idea from being accepted.  It, itself, is
a problem that needs solving, and altering or limiting
the users isn't a viable solution (in fact, the
requirement for said alterations or limits is a large
part of the problem).