[extropy-chat] Another place to opine

[mike99]

While googling to find material for adding to the wiki on bioluddism, I
discovered a new (at least to me) right-wing site that mentions
transhumanism: http://right-mind.us/archive/2005/03/12/2439.aspx

Here is the text I found there, and the posted comments; you may want to add
your own:
...........................


Transhumanism

There is a lot of discussion online as of late about the concept of
Transhumanism.

No, transhumanism won't be added to the alphabet soup of BGLTSA.

Rather, transhumanism deals with using biotechnology, genetic engineering,
stem cell, cloning, molecular nanotechnology, superintelligence, virtual
reality, augmented reality, etc., to move mankind beyond current limits.
This is kind of a souped-up Darwinism, where we can even splice genetic
materials of other things (plants, animals, etc) into human DNA to create
the cross-breeding we need.

There's a website devoted to all things transhuman:
http://transhumanism.org/

Thoughts? Is this a lawful and positive use of technology?
posted on Saturday, March 12, 2005 9:57 AM
Comments

    *
      # It depends, but much of it is perverse in the extreme
      Christopher Witmer
      Posted @ 3/12/2005 10:18 AM
      I won't give a simplistic response along the lines of, "If God had
wanted us to fly He would have given us wings," but obviously there is
tremendous potential for worse than the worst that Aldous Huxley envisioned
in Brave New World.

    * The desire to be something other than human is sinful. The desire to
use various means to become a better human is not, in and of itself, sinful.
      # re: Transhumanism
      Konty
      Posted @ 3/14/2005 8:17 AM

      I agree with Christopher that the pros and cons of this are very
complex.
      The Founders gave us this plural system for dealing wiith uncertainty
like this, so as long as the process is deliberative and transparent I think
we can deal with it. As soon as we stop debating it, and as soon as the
science becomes secretive, we are in trouble.


.......................


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:
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