[extropy-chat] Blackford on enhancement

[Lee Corbin]

Damien S. quotes Russell Blackford

> ...we do not have to take human nature as we find it.
> 
> There is no reason why our abilities and personalities should
> be expected to line up neatly with our desires or purposes.
> ...
> What we must concede is that it will be difficult to improve on what 
> evolution has given us - not because we are perfectly designed by its 
> processes but because we still have so much to learn about ourselves. 
> For example, the underlying biological bases of our social nature 
> need to be understood in much more depth before we take action that 
> might hinder their operation. Accordingly, I am all for proceeding 
> with caution and accepting that we may not see much change to human 
> nature in our own lifetimes.

The most effective road to such learning about our own natures
would be through experimentation. All those countries exercising
capital punishment should pool their criminals awaiting execution,
and these criminals should be freely experimented on.

Yet can you imagine the howls of outrage?  Far better it is,
apparently, to simply kill them than to mess around with
artificial means of affecting their relationships with one
another and altering their moods.  There simply *are* some
aspects of our conservatism that make no sense.

> That acknowledged, it remains to be emphasised that we are conscious 
> beings whose desires, purposes, and values go far beyond, and may 
> even conflict with, reproductive fitness and with some aspects of our 
> natures that once served it.

Careful there, or only those who do not lower their reproductive
fitness shall inherit the earth. Again, though, seeking to
produce more desirable individuals by the millions using
artificial means still seems unthinkable to most. I have never
in my life been able to truly understand why.

> If there is a genuine choice between maintaining our evolved
> physical and psychological nature as it is and tweaking it to
> something more conducive to getting what we consciously want
> for ourselves, then I'm all for doing the tweaking. On that
> point of principle, I am in good company with Walters and Palmer.

Sure enough.  I just wonder how many decades more we'll have to
wait before societies are willing to take bold steps (such as
I've mentioned above).

Lee