[extropy-chat] The hazards of writing fiction about post-humans

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> On the one hand, it wouldn't make
> much 
> sense to write about posthumans as if they were representations of
> the 
> people down the road, or in the next room.

Sure it would - just not from a point of view that tries to accurately
predict how things will be.  But is that the point of writing?  Or is
it to guide readers who currently really are just plain human, towards
thinking of where you see us going.

Problem is, some people are already opposed to any posthuman future -
often not aware of it enough to know the word "posthuman", but they
know what they fear and hate - and thus want to believe that all
posthumans are soulless automatons, or otherwise intrinsically suffer
for their removal from nature's original design.  Just like those who
claim that none of the Terminators (from the movie series) ever showed
a shred of humanity, despite several examples to the contrary being
easily findable.  So any realistic portrayal of anything even remotely
deserving the label "posthuman" is likely to get dismissed by certain
critics, deservedly or not.