[extropy-chat] Re: Raelians

[ben]

It seems to me that transhumanists, unlike members of groups like the 
raelians, are more likely to be 'individuals' (Cue: "Yes, we're all 
individuals!"), and not so likely to 'join the transhumanists' as to 
realise that they are one. Maybe as a result of talking to others or 
seeing a website, but not likely as a result of being 'recruited' by an 
existing member.

I was a transhumanist decades before i even heard of the word. So, to 
me, transhumanism is just a convenient label for my own mindset. It's 
great that there are other people with a similar mindset, and that i can 
discuss things with them and even co-operate with them to do my bit to 
help make a desirable future, but there's no party line to toe, and if 
there was, it wouldn't get my toe. If someone became a 'leader of the 
movement' and tried to tell me what to believe and how to behave, i 
would probably ignore them (probably? no, definitely!). I might even 
decide that i wasn't a transhumanist after all, if that's what it's 
about. I would then revert to what i was before - a 'bennist', which is 
what i always used to tell people if they asked me what i was.

That's the difference between cults like the raelians and rationalist 
movements like transhumanism, at least to me.

I think it's natural that there are many different transhumanist groups 
with their own take on things. Some of them will be all new-agey, some 
will be hard-core rationalist and ultra-high-tech, etc., but as long as 
we are all facing in vaguely the same direction, it's ok. Diversity is 
good. Biology has proved that again and again. I think there will be 
transhumanists around long after the raelians are a slightly puzzling 
historical footnote. (Of course they might not be called transhumanists 
anymore. TransPosthumanists, maybe?)

Natasha: "transhumanism is split into a variety of beliefs that have
separated themselves from the transhumanist core"

'is split into a variety of beliefs', maybe, if you want to use the word 
"beliefs", although i would rather not.

But, 'separated themselves from the transhumanist core'? Well, i can 
only speak for myself, but i certainly never did this. Couldn't, cos i 
was never part of it. This conjures up an image of a single object 
splintering into smaller bits that fall away. I think it's more accurate 
to picture a saturated solution, with crystals spontaneously forming in 
it, all over the place. You can't say that most of the crystals have 
separated themselves from the one that happened to form first.

I don't mean to belittle the role of the first people to call themselves 
transhumanists, but we shouldn't put the cart before the horse. We are 
not followers of anybody or anything. We are people with a (fairly) 
common vision. If there is an organisational model for transhumanists, 
it's certainly not like the military. It's more like the internet.

ben