[extropy-chat] They are scared

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 pgptag at gmail.com
Wed Sep 15 15:30:53 UTC 2004


I must confess that I am very fond of Fukuyama's "The
World's Most Dangerous Ideas - Transhumanism",
appeared on Foreign Policy a few weeks ago. Of course
I don't agree with Fukuyama: I completely agree with
the replies of Ron Bailey and Nick Bostrom:
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb082504.shtml
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/bostrom-responds-to-fukuyama/
Despite "dismiss transhumanists as some sort of odd
cult, nothing more than science fiction taken too
seriously", which used to be the mainstream attitude,
Fukuyama now respects transhumanism as a dangerous
enemy and acknowledges that "the new procedures and
technologies emerging from research laboratories and
hospitals-whether mood-altering drugs, substances to
boost muscle mass or selectively erase memory,
prenatal genetic screening, or gene therapy-can as
easily be used to "enhance" the species as to ease or
ameliorate illness". And we should thank him for "as
transhumanists see it, humans must wrest their
biological destiny from evolution's blind process of
random variation and adaptation and move to the next
stage as a species", a very good compact description
of our worldview.
Why do I like this paper? Because it shows how
technophobes and bioluddites are beginning to realize
that transhumanism makes sense, perhaps much more
sense than their pointless appeals to ill-conceived
and nebulous notions of "human dignity", "humility"
(what a stupid word), and "reverence", and that more
and more people may see things our way in the near
future.
They see that a powerful storm is coming and are
scared to death. They still have all the advantages:
they represent the mainstream, have well funded think
tanks with paid skilled staff, and are listened to by
policy makers, while transhumanists are often still
perceived as a fringe group of volunteer activists
with a half-baked philosophy. But they are probably
realizing that sooner or later, sooner if we make the
right moves, transhumanists may well have the same
resources, maturity and status. At that point we will
be very close to winning the battle because, all other
factors being equal, we will have the advantage that
our ideas make much more sense.
Reading Fukuyama's paper really boosted my morale and
motivation, so difficult to keep for volunteer
activists: I can see that we are beginning to hurt them.



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