[ExI] "meat"

[Damien Broderick]

At 12:08 PM 5/25/2009 -0400, Harvey wrote:

>those who fear uploading and wish to remain in their bodies are 
>terrified when transhumanists refer to their bodies as "meat". To 
>them, it is the same as if we referred to them as "spare parts", 
>"pre-amputated flesh", or "chaff" to be thrown away.  This term 
>actually implies a starting point of belittlement and an ending 
>point of physical destruction.

Indeed. But not only to those who are "terrified." Ayn Rand, for 
example, made it clear repeatedly that she despised those who attempt 
to distance or detach the mind or "soul" from the sensuous body. 
(This is not an appeal to authority, just to consistency from the 
many ExI posters who usually approve Rand's approach to life.)

But, as Harvey notes, why stop at "meat"? How about "putrid slime" or 
"shit"? You think this is wild, gratuitous rhetoric? That kind of 
rhetoric has been around for a long time and, pace Lee, not only in 
Catholicism. Here's a Talmudic text:

"Akabaya Ben Mahalalel says, 'Whence thou art come?' From a putrid 
drop." Pirke Abot, the Wisdom of the Fathers.

Damien Broderick