[ExI] My confusion, the Kurzweil critique

[Kevin H]

I've wondered some of those things myself.  I'm dubious even of the
proposition of strong AI and really see the future more in line of
cyborgism.  I also wonder about the emphasis on life extension and
immortality--the threat of immortality is what disturbs me about
Christianity.  And I think if you can live extremely well, the duration
hardly matters.

Yet I still see myself as something of a transhumanist, though perhaps a
different kind than many of you are.  But what I see as central to
transhumanism is the idea that humanity itself is something we can lay our
hands on and alter.  From every other way of thinking, this proposition is
frightening, heretical, unnatural, reckless, foolish or nihilistic; so if I
don't belong with the transhumanists then I belong no where.  I'm also not
as confident that posthumanity is going to happen as many of you are--it's
definitely something that we need to make some effort in order to happen.
All I know is that something *must* happen: change or perish is the only
commandment of nature.  Consider this the morale of the TV show "Heroes" in
a nutshell.  Or the other form of this commandment: "Don't be stupid.
Better yet, be smart!"  And look up the definition of "stupid" in the
dictionary--it's primary meaning isn't about intelligence.  I also don't
think that transhumanity is just about entertaining ourselves, gaining
abilities for the "oh cool" factor or for some vague idea of the "good
life".  It's not a luxury but a necessity.

I don't know--do I need to create my own branch of transhumanism? ;)

*Kevin*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20071105/f10f07c3/attachment.html>