[extropy-chat] REAL POLITIK IN THE WTA... and so long...

[BillK]

On 1/14/06, Jef Allbright wrote:
> Spike, I agree with you regarding the necessity of individual drivers
> of growth, but what is often disregarded is the cooperative framework
> that supports such individual growth, and the overwhelming (in the
> long term) benefits of synergetic organization.
>
> [I hope this isn't construed as support for socialism and central management.]
>

Oh, Spike, you are naughty!   :)
You said that bad word - 'socialism'.  :)

It covers such a wide range of features that it is pretty well useless
as an adjective and just becomes an epithet that is thrown at people.

I think it is safe to say that the WTA does *not* consist mostly of
dyed-in-the-wool libertarians.  :)

But I suspect you would find a lot to agree with, in their statement
of Transhumanist Values written by Nick Bostrom.  (You probably won't
agree with everything, but that's life).
<http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/transhumanist-values/>

After all, Max and Natasha are Honorary Vice Chairs of the WTA, and
they have been featured speakers at the last three Transvision
conferences. I am sure if the WTA was a hotbed of Communist propaganda
they would soon disassociate themselves.


A couple of quotes from Transhumanist Values:
------------------------
To start with, transhumanists typically place emphasis on individual
freedom and individual choice in the area of enhancement technologies.
Humans differ widely in their conceptions of what their own perfection
or improvement would consist in. Some want to develop in one
direction, others in different directions, and some prefer to stay the
way they are. It would be morally unacceptable for anybody to impose a
single standard to which we would all have to conform. People should
have the right to choose which enhancement technologies, if any, they
want to use. In cases where individual choices impact substantially on
other people, this general principle may need to be restricted, but
the mere fact that somebody may be disgusted or morally affronted by
somebody else's using technology to modify herself would not normally
a legitimate ground for coercive interference. Furthermore, the poor
track record of centrally planned efforts to create better people
(e.g. the eugenics movement and Soviet totalitarianism) shows that we
need to be wary of collective decision-making in the field of human
modification.
---------------------
Since technological development is necessary to realize the
transhumanist vision, entrepreneurship, science, and the engineering
spirit are to be promoted. More generally, transhumanists favor a
pragmatic attitude and a constructive, problem-solving approach to
challenges, preferring methods that experience tells us give good
results. They think it better to take the initiative to "do something
about it" rather than sit around complaining. This is one sense in
which transhumanism is optimistic.
------------------------

And there is the recent Statement on Totalitarianism
Friday, November 04, 2005

"Whereas, transhumanism presupposes a robust respect for individual
liberty, cultural diversity, and human rights; Therefore the WTA
considers totalitarian regimes to be contrary to transhumanist values
and hostile to transhumanist aspirations."


BillK