[extropy-chat] Max's "Beyond Caution" reworked a bit

[Samantha Atkins]

The Nietzsche quote is well played.  I do indeed "feel the breath of  
empty space" - the colossal size of the step beyond all that we know.    
It is perfectly natural that we would feel some fear as we take the  
very shape and limits of our very selves into our own hands.   It is  
truly an awesome challenge and mistakes could indeed be quite costly.    
I find it easier than some to understand that many do not believe we  
are competent to take such a step without immediate disaster.   They  
have a quite legitimate worry.   If I was not so utterly convinced that  
staying as we are leads irrevocably to disaster and relatively soon, I  
might even be more supportive of their camp.

Accomplishing change is natural.  So is being conservative and  
resisting more change that may be wise to attempt at once.   Both  
adventurous and conservative forces have a place in human well being  
even as we become able to go beyond what we thought our human nature  
was limited to.

I don't think the main gist of the resistance is due to some collision  
with belief in a perfect creator.   To me the main worry is that we are  
stepping beyond, and beyond the beyond, with little idea of where we  
are stepping to or of whether we will have greater well-being than we  
have today.   Few people can imagine so much change.  We ourselves  
admit our plans lead directly to more change in a shorter period of  
time than it is remotely possible to imagine.   So there are legitimate  
reasons to exercise caution and advocate restraint to at least some  
level.

I don't think we do ourselves justice or convince anyone or even seem  
like reasonable people when we simply paint the "opposition" as being  
given to irrational progress-hating myth-based views.   There is  
undoubtedly some of that but then there is enough irrationality in our  
own house.   There are quite rational reasons to be cautious.

Why not meet the opposition half-way where we are both rational and  
wish for the best for all of us?  That point precludes the stopping of  
progress but it also precludes the reification of any/all progress as  
the Good Incarnate.   It requires more sobriety all around.

- samantha


On May 18, 2004, at 11:47 PM, Reason wrote:

> I've reworked Max's recent Beyond Caution to focus more on healthy life
> extension, and express a little of my own outrage with the matters to  
> hand.
> It's the latest Longevity Meme article:
>
> http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm? 
> article_id=18&page=1
>
> Reason
> Founder, Longevity Meme
>
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