[ExI] A Transhumanist Terrorist Manifesto

[kevin.osborne]

Not genuinely trying to be dystopic/cataclysic here, but:

Surely the thought that the political/academic/cultural transhumanism
of today may one day be adjuncted with a military/security wing has
been posited previously?

And If not, why not? As altruistic and peace-loving as we may be, we
seem ripe for xenophobic suppression as a minority. It may well be
that the majority of H+ are pacifists, but do not count all of us
among your number. None of us like war and bloodshed. All of us know
that it will mean children dead by the sword. But surely a posthuman
holocaust is a real and cognizable risk?

As we spiral down the well into the singularity, unprecedented levels
of tumult are foreseeable.

It seems almost preordained that one day certain sections of the
movement will become anathema to others within the global community;
religious types stand out as initial likely candidates, but
state-sponsored policing institutions may well take umbrage also.

Sooner or later a leader of ours will be imprisoned, and later still
someone will be assassinated.

It may become that the Luddites will decide the only good posthuman is
a dead one. I don't think I'm being very outlandish here. Human nature
is what it is. If a religious fundamentalist sticks an icepick through
your head, all the cryo in the world isn't going to bring you back.

The defacement of public works and monuments is a time-honored
tradition of civil disobedience, political unrest and revolution.
Blowing up a statue - as long as no-one dies - doesn't seem beyond the
pale to me. It just doesn't. Yes it is a slippery slope, but exactly
what kind of slope did you think this H+ thing was on?

It seems like some were just hoping to squeak through the uplift door
without anyone noticing. And if so, why? What the heck does that say
about who you are, or who you are going to be? I'd rather die now for
a cause I'm prepared to stand up for than live on as a someone who had
to pretend their way into being something more than human. Is that the
humanity you are wanting to preserve? Is that the future you are
promising? This is your preferred mode of operation that finds other
methods so distasteful?

I'm sure it would be better for all of us if there were no need to
fight in order to attain our future. I just don't think we should bank
on it. I think the cultural, academic and political wings of
transhumanism are its lifeblood, engine room and conscience
respectively. But I think we are going to need more than that. I think
in your heart of hearts some of you do also.

I don't want to stand by while some of out greatest minds whither and
die of old age. I'm a young man, and can fight for their cause. I can
breathe with forthright vigor and impetus while they count down to the
last breath they may take.  I don't think they want to go, and yet
with our dawdling and bumbling we tacitly accept their demise.

Fighting for the future doesn't have to mean violence. But we should
be fighting, yearning, reaching. Transcendence should be a blaze of
glory upon a pyre of our achievement, not a pained and delayed excuse
carried over the line only by its own momentum and apologized for
throughout.

Posthumanity and the singularity will be the pinnacle of human
achievement. We should achieve it in a manner of 'arete', not in a
manner of conflict avoidance and procrastination.

It is -our- future. We should fight for it. We should protect those
who matter to us from harm. We should resist suppression and
persecution.

We should Transcend.