[ExI] A Transhumanist Terrorist Manifesto

[Richard Loosemore]

People,

I don't think anyone is taking this seriously enough.

It is not a matter of *whether* this 'manifesto' will be taken as 
representative of what transhumanists believe, it is a question of 
*when* some media outlet picks it up and brands the entire transhumanist 
  movement as a terrorist group.  That is what media outlets do:  their 
job is extremist portrayals.  Now that kevine.osborne has done this, it 
will sit there as a ticking bomb.

I see two choices.  One is to repudiate the thing strongly enough to 
expunge it from the record.  If necessary, shut down the list completely 
and reconstitute under a new name.  It is not enough to say "I 
personally repudiate this".  It has to be expunged in such a thorough 
way that this group of people are seen to have taken the most drastic 
action possible to dissociate themselves from it.

The other is to do nothing and just say "we disagree with this".  Then 
it is just a matter of time before it blows up in your face.

Although I have been in this field for a long time, and am a significant 
participant on other lists, I have only recently joined the extropians 
list itself.  If the drastic rejection of this manifesto I suggested 
above does not take place within a very short time, I am out of here.  I 
will not be associated in any way with an organization that tolerates 
this kind of declaration to stay on the record.


Richard Loosemore.











kevin.osborne wrote:
> 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.
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