[ExI] Blackford and Egan on >H

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 pgptag at gmail.com
Thu Apr 24 06:27:16 UTC 2008


My comment on Russel's blog:

Thanks Russel, Greg and others for the great article and discussion.

I guess I agree with Greg that "The word "transhumanism" (or, even
worse, "posthumanism") sounds like a suicide note for the species,
which effectively renders it a political suicide note for any movement
by that name.".

Of course, most transhumanists don't mean it as a suicide for the
species, but rather as growing up to adulthood as a species. But my
experience is that most people do not relate positively to the term
because it conjures the negative and threatening images described in
the post and comments.

But labels are a useful communication device. Of course the simple
words "Left", "Right", "Democratic", "Republican" etc. cannot capture
a more complex political position, but they are still useful to
express _more or less_ where one stands. And we need simple labels for
overcoming human limitations through all available means including
technology because, like it or not, this is becoming and important
political issue.

So what label should we use for the simple idea of, in Russel's words,
"being in favour of using technology to overcome human limitations
(and accepting that one day our bodies may be different, rather than
being appalled at the idea)"?

I always thought the "Extropy" label is very strong because it does
not have an "old" meaning and by itself does not trigger any image, be
it positive or negative. But over the year the E word has became more
and more identified with a specific political flavor of the T word
(perhaps this is not what Max More and the first Extropians would have
wished).

Perhaps the T word will lose its negative connotations over time, or
perhaps we should think of a new label.

G.



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