[extropy-chat] The Transhuman fallacy - Dangerous, or merely a joke?

[Steve Nichols]

I have witnessed the ineffectual belief-system called "Trans-human"
since 
its conception, and I have always struggled to decide whether it is just
a 
harmless if pointless diversion - - or whether it is a potent force for
REACTION 
and regression! 
Either way, it cannot be claimed that transhumanism is in any way
RADICAL 
or forward thinking. There is no change from the agenda of Italian
futurists of 
the 1930's .. while events like MVT have changed the landscape of
knowledge 
irretrievably. 
What I argue is that by kicking any possibility for real advance (to a
new species) 
into the long (500 year) grass, the transhumans and extropians are just
serving the 
status quo, and are a force for inertia. Applauding new incremental
technological 
advance is pure mainstream corporate America. More of the same to keep
society 
exactly the same. They are in a mental comfort zone of "transition" to a
new state 
as a mechanism for actually avoiding this transition at all costs! 
I must assert the Law of Excluded Middle that maintains you can either
be HUMAN, 
or not. After-human or posthuman is the alternative (unless you choose
to seek 
regression to pre-human). This is quite clear. No sitting on an
imaginary 
transitional fence. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION was the time of change -
not the 
late C20th - as a species, industrial man bears little resemblance to
his forebears. 
Our bones are D-shaped rather than O-shaped as skeletons were in the
past, so 
future archaeology will clearly be able to identify us as POST-human,
even if some 
of us currently have failed to notice! 
More info: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6380890311

www.posthuman.org The Post human Movement - since 1980s 

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