[extropy-chat] New (but mistaken) article against transhumanism

[Adrian Tymes]

>
http://www.illinoisleader.com/columnists/columnistsview.asp?c=21250

There is, of course, a fundamental misunderstanding
behind this pastor's venom:

> The leading transhumanist website lists, among its
> core values, this statement: “Transhumanism
> advocates the well-being of all sentience (whether
> in artificial intellects, humans, posthumans, or
> non-human animals) and encompasses many principles
> of modern humanism.”
> 
> Translated to English, this is the belief that human
> beings are simply one of the animals of the universe
> and, apparently, simply part of an intellectual
> continuum that includes artificial intelligence.

So far, so good - technically.  We are indeed part of
a continuum, and if a human-equivalent AI (including
human-equivalent capabilities for self-improvement, no
matter how unlikely that restriction may seem to many
of us) were to become reality, we would probably treat
it as the moral equivalent of a human being.

But then follows the error:

> In a worldview, universe view (if you will), where
> human beings hold the same relative value as a
> microprocessors or sheep,

Or, restated later:

> If we are indistinguishable, in value, from other
> forms of life or other forms of intelligence,

Being on a continuum is not the same concept as being
indistinguishable.  Indeed, it is almost the opposite
concept: the ends of the continuum are what
distinguish human beings from nonsentient computers
and sheep.