[extropy-chat] Article: "Laughter at people's fears"

[Harvey Newstrom]

On Dec 24, 2004, at 5:47 AM, Samantha Atkins wrote:

> Wow!  Where on earth did they get these scientists and people
> supposedly on "our side"?  Are we sure they aren't plants to make
> genetic research look scary, irresponsible, arrogant and not at all
> wise?   Perhaps they aren't but they sure as hell aren't doing us or
> themselves a lot of good with some of this material.
>
> Perhaps it is to be expected.   If you separate science and reason
> from all that "separate magisteria" stuff dealing with things that
> "really matter" like morals, values, wisdom and such as far as most of
> the world is concerned, then the science and reason folk might tend to
> be a just a tad ungrounded and seemingly not quite aware of the real
> people involved.   I've seen such in some doctors at least.

Sadly, I've seen such attitude in transhumanists frequently.  Many of 
us get so caught up in ideas that we lose touch with reality.

Kill everybody and scan their dead brains into a computer.  Destroy the 
earth for spare parts.  Disassemble the sun because we don't need it 
anymore.  Give robot big brothers power of humanity.  Release untested 
nanobots and viruses into the environment because it is too costly to 
wait.  Pollute all we want because we'll fix it later.  Don't send a 
probe to Pluto because it will be disassembled before we get there.  We 
are living in a computer simulation.  We can commit suicide and appear 
in a parallel universe.  We can kill people as long as we copy them 
first.  Mortals are only temporary and aren't as important as us 
immortals.   Plant false warning labels on natural foods.  Plant false 
verses in the Koran to sabotage some religions.  Release genetically 
modified fish into the environment as a publicity stunt.  Upload people 
against their will for their own good.  Don't allow accurate labeling 
of genetically modified foods because the general public is too stupid 
to make an informed decision.  Let's engineer memes to fool the 
"proles" into proper modes of thinking.

Does any of this sound familiar to readers of this list?  We have 
argued all of these topics in this forum.  There have been some of "us" 
arguing on both sides of the issue.

--
Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
CISSP, ISSAP, ISSMP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC