[extropy-chat] Transhumanism in "Army of Davids"?

[Neil H.]

Apparently the new book "An Army of Davids" by the Instapundit, Glenn
Reynolds, has a section which positively discusses transhumanism. Has
anybody had a chance to read the book yet? I'm hoping to get a copy myself
in the near future. The only commentary I could find about this section was
the following unfortunate blog entry:


http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_great_seduction/2006/week11/index.html

Today's meaningless equivalent of the word Fascism is the word Luddite. In a
section entitled "We are all Supermen Now", Reynolds introduces a word he
calls "transhumanism." – a word so devoid of meaning that it might have been
coined by  another of George Orwell's great legacies -- his Ministry of
Truth from *Ninety Eighty-Four*.

Reynolds tells us that the pro-transhumanist community expects to encounter
considerable opposition from "Luddites" like Bill McKibben and Francis
Fukuyama. In Reynolds' corrupt lexicon, anyone who doesn't agree with his
extremist views about technology is a Luddite. Since nobody in their right
mind could agree with Reynolds' messianic faith in the "transhumanist"
qualities of technology, that makes any sane person into a Luddite.

So this is where Reynolds and Kurweil and their techno-utopianism has led
us. Either we are pro-transhumanists or we are Luddites. Such are the
consequences of foolish thoughts and slovenly language. Such is the impact
of contemporary technology utopianism upon the English language.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060323/ff1f70f3/attachment.html>