[ExI] Are transhumanists becoming the bad guys?

[Darin Sunley]

We have been in for some time, and are heading into, an extended period of
massive societal change and economic uncertainty. Per Keith Henson, this
triggers a deep-seated gene complex that turns people unreasonably
xenophobic. Any group radically different from one's own becomes
intrinsically suspect just on general principles.

I've been active on this list and other transhumanist-adjacent circles
since the mid-90s. And even with the general principles set aside, some of
the substance of those complaints is, broadly speaking, true.
Transhumanists are still, and really always have been, at best, mildly
hostile to traditional conceptions of spirituality and religion. The Venn
diagram between transhumanism and New Atheism in the 90's was almost a pair
of concentric circles. Not all online atheists were transhumanists, but
virtually all transhumanists were atheist, frequently aggressively so.

On Wed, Nov 29, 2023 at 3:37 PM efc--- via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Hello list,
>
> The other day I was listening to a conspiracy pod and all of a sudden, I
> heard a medium talk about how the transhumanists want to
> eradicate all spiritual values and merge humanity with the machine.
>
> In my own home cooked transhumanist version, transhumanists are
> optimistic, life affirming people who are solving problems with
> science and technology.
>
> So when did transhumanists start to become the bad guys in conspiracy
> circles? Did anyone of you encounter this in real life or in
> virtual life?
>
> Curious shift in narrative that completely passed me by and caught me by
> surprise.
>
> Best regards,
> Daniel
>
>
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>
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