[ExI] mind body dualism.

[darren shawn greer]

>And yet one would be hard pressed to define the difference. Simply, in
>the first scenario ordinary survival mechanism telling you that your
>genes would have a better chance if you run, come into play.

 

 

I expect there is a certain amount of social conditioning invovled in such a scenario. If you were to time-travel a contemporary surgeon back to the twelfth century, and they were to tell an average guy living in that century that he could simply replace his heart with a new one, that guy would likely run screaming too. Along with any technological adavancement for the betterment or convenience of the human race the science must be popularized and people assured that the science is safe. Air travel, modern medical procedures, nuclear power all have had to undergo this process of popular assurance. If the benefit outweighs the risk, and people have been assured that the science is sound and the process safe enough, no matter how contrary to our base survival instinct, we will eventually utilize it. Human beings are remarkably adaptable in this sense, which has made possible our technological progress thus far. 


 

Forgive me. Alot of you guys are scientists, or lay mathmaticians it seems. I'm an artist, an english lit major, and an essayist. My interest in transhumanism is largely with the social conditions required for human beings to accept what I see as inevitable, the transformation of the human race through technology into something more than human. I don't see this happening without radical social and intellectual changes, as well as a shift in the way we look at each other and the world. I also see the post-human state as an evolutionary process. Dr. Andy Miah believes the evolutionary component to be unimportant compared to the technological component. I respectfully disagree. 

 

Give you an idea of why I often interject on a sociologicial basis.

 

Darren

Per Ardua Ad Astra
For more info on author Darren Greer visit 
http://darrenshawngreer.blogspot.com



 

> Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:16:24 +0200
> From: stefano.vaj at gmail.com
> To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> Subject: Re: [ExI] mind body dualism.
> 
> 2010/7/5 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:
> > I hate to break it to you Damien, but at the deepest level our bodies are
> > fungible and if you don't like that fact feel free to rage about it if that
> > makes you feel better. It won't change a thing.
> 
> It is true however that some paradoxes are hardly avoidable. Let us
> take again teleport.
> 
> Imagine a teleline employee telling you. "Sir, I am pleased to inform
> you that your details have been correctly received by our Vancouver
> station and you are in the process of being reconstituted right now.
> Now, let us proceed to the destruction phase of the process".
> 
> I would be the first to scream and run.
> 
> OTOH, if such "destruction" is an instantaneous processus taking place
> prior or simultaneously with my exiting the gate in Vancouver, I
> assume that (almost) nobody would really care, not really anymore than
> about the idea that any relocation in space would break continuity,
> and if you move by walking from point A to point B your atoms "cease
> to exist" in point A and "start existing" in point B.
> 
> And yet one would be hard pressed to define the difference. Simply, in
> the first scenario ordinary survival mechanism telling you that your
> genes would have a better chance if you run, come into play.
> 
> -- 
> Stefano Vaj
> 
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