[extropy-chat] What does it mean to be Human? (anti-transhumanist rant)

[Mike Dougherty]

On 11/18/06, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The John Templeton Foundation has issued an anti-transhumanist rant<http://www.templeton.org/milestones/index.asp>and will hold a Research Lecture on "Facing the Challenges of
> Transhumanism". The arguments here are shoddy and reactionary, surprising
> for both Templeton and Metanexus have a history of balance but they are
> obviously treading into territory where they have little history. There is
> the usual appeal to a vague and nebulous concept of "human nature", which is
> of course never defined and sounds like an apology of suffering, stupidity
> and death, and the usual references to the "the belief that humans are
> created by God in the image of God".
>

Does it matter which side of the issue we approach from if the goal is to
bring the picture into better focus?  Having any foundation willing to spend
money to raise awareness about transhumanism should ultimately be a good
thing.  If the concepts are sound they will hold up to scrutiny.  If the
general population decides to pass on the offer, then transhumans will
eventually migrate without them.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20061118/86c3618b/attachment.html>