[extropy-chat] Fwd: SURVIVAL: An impulse behind transhumanism?

[nvitamore at austin.rr.com]

From: Samantha Atkins sjatkins at mac.com

>I am not sure that survival is where the roots are.  Humanity seems  
>to have a deep yearning to overcome various limitations and forms of  
>suffering.  That yearning is seen is religions, in philosophy, in  
>art, in various idealistic notions and systems, and in  
>transhumanism.    Transhumanism seems to be a manifestation of that  
>ancient drive made aware of science and technological  
>possibilities.   So I think the impulse behind transhumanism goes  
>beyond survival or at least that 'survival' misses important nuances.

What motivates the desire to overcoming limitations, if not a need to
survive the limitations?  

Are religious practices and rituals a means to help people survive current
conditions, both mental and physical?  Is art a means to overcome (survive)
mundacity or a repetitious-constant-state of life by creating alterative
ways of seeing the world?  Is that ancient drive you refer to motivated by
a need to survive?  Was the first technology (tool) built to protect or
kill in order to survive?

What is the impulse behind survival?

Natasha

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