[ExI] Enhanced humans: the new arms (nephilim) race

[John Grigg]

What I found fascinating about the article was the claim that the U.S.
government/military has already realized the importance of creating
transhumans for the sake of national security and martial superiority.
 I would say the race for transhuman supermen and seedA.I. is off and
running!!

John

On 10/20/10, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
>
>> ...On Behalf Of Joseph Bloch
>> Subject: Re: [ExI] Enhanced humans: the new arms (nephilim) race
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 1:22 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > Ja.  If anything, transforming into a posthuman would automatically
>> > mean a dramatic gain in dignity.
>>
>> Unfortunately, one of the most common arguments I've run
>> across against Transhumanism is the "loss of human dignity"
>> argument. Casual dismissal isn't the right way to deal with
>> it, as it seems to be growing amongst those who can't find
>> any argument against Transhumanist technologies and
>> techniques from a utilitarian point of view... Joseph
>
> I have heard it before.  I try the light hearted approach, pointing out that
> I have so much dignity, I could lose quite a bit of it and never miss it.
> But it isn't just me.  Look at the clothing we have now, and compare to the
> clothing from a few hundred years ago.  They looked reaaallly stupid, as
> dumb as those guys who wear their pants around their knees.  So we gained a
> ton of dignity just by not wearing stupid looking clothing.  Looks like we
> could give up all that and still be a breakeven with the old timers.
> Another thing that has occurred in just the past couple hundred years or
> less: universal warm running water in homes makes it possible to bathe every
> day, so we don't go around stinking.  This is a huge human dignity advance,
> which we could cash in and still at least break even.
>
> Actually I agree Joseph.  The human dignity argument is a vague, almost
> undefined notion that people pull out because they are masking something
> else entirely: intolerance for human inequality.  If we develop a bunch of
> posthuman technologies, the benefits will go wildly disproportionately to
> those who are already advanced.  It already works that way: aborigines
> didn't benefit much from the development of the PC or the internet.  They
> are even farther behind now.
>
> For reasons I don't fully comprehend, humans vary widely on their tolerance
> for human inequality.  I see inequality as completely inevitable: advancing
> technology gives godlike powers to those who master it and use it, but
> actually harms those who eschew it.  The only way I can relate is to imagine
> a group of people who do some mysterious procedure, resulting in their
> having an average IQ of 160, live an average of 200 years, need to sleep
> only four hours a week, make a ton of money, never get sick and can do 400
> pull-ups.  It would feel threatening I suppose to live in a world where such
> a people existed, especially if they kept that technology to themselves.
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
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