[extropy-chat] RE: [wta-talk] TR: sense of fear

[mike99]

Giulio,
Yes, I quite agree with your characterization of Fukuyama's objections to
transhumanism as sounding "like the objections of a child who does not want
to grow into a teen, or a teen who is afraid of growing into an adult."

We have a name for this phenomenon. It is based on a classic of British
children's literature. It is called the "Peter Pan Syndrome."


Regards,

Michael LaTorra

mike99 at lascruces.com
mlatorra at nmsu.edu

"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski

"Experiences only look special from the inside of the system."
-- Eugen Leitl

Member:
Board of Directors, World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Board of Directors, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies:
http://ieet.org/
Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Technical Communication: www.stc.org
President, Zen Center of Las Cruces: http://www.zencenteroflascruces.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wta-talk-bounces at transhumanism.org
> [mailto:wta-talk-bounces at transhumanism.org]On Behalf Of Giu1i0 Pri5c0
> Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:09 PM
> To: hitbangpost at googlegroups.com; ExI chat list; World Transhumanist
> Association Discussion List
> Subject: [wta-talk] TR: sense of fear
>
>
> My comment to the TR forum:
> Greg wrote: "What disturbs me is the sense of fear that I derived from
> Dr. Nuland's article, as well as your editorial. Fear that more people
> will take de Grey seriously and force people like you and Dr. Nuland
> to question your core beliefs."
> Exactly. I had the same impression reading Francis Fukuyama's article
> "The World's Most Dangerous Ideas - Transhumanism" on Foreign Policy
> (September - October 2004), beginning with:
> "For the last several decades, a strange liberation movement has grown
> within the developed world. Its crusaders aim much higher than civil
> rights campaigners, feminists, or gayrights advocates. They want
> nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological
> constraints. 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."
> Fukuyama raises several objections to our inevitable "moving on to the
> next stage", all thoughtful and well articulated. But to me, they
> sound like the objections of a child who does not want to grow into a
> teen, or a teen who is afraid of growing into an adult.
> http://www.technologyreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forumid=1002
> _______________________________________________
> wta-talk mailing list
> wta-talk at transhumanism.org
> http://www.transhumanism.org/mailman/listinfo/wta-talk
>