<html>
<body>
Your hyperbole just isn't interesting to me. <br><br>
Natasha<br><br>
At 02:25 PM 11/17/2004, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">The connection between Dante and
advanced life extension (which is my shorthand for transhumanism) is too
remote for my liking. How far can we stretch it? perhaps Jesus was
the first extropian when he broke the loaves and fishes into enough
fragments to feed that large crowd of hungry people two thousand years
ago? <br>
My quota of posts has been reached for the list today, and you don't want
a blizzard of back & forth to your email, do you?<br><br>
<b><i>"natashavita@earthlink.net"
<natashavita@earthlink.net></i></b> wrote:<br>
<i>It would take me at least an hour to convey my views and research
about the<br>
beginnings of transhumanism and the idea of the transhuman. At this<br>
moment, I only have a few minutes, so I’ll be brief.<br><br>
In being fair-minded, we need to consider the environment of the time
in<br>
which Dante lived, just as we do with today and Huxley's time.
Huxley<br>
believed in a "New Divinity" while Dante believed in
“philosophical<br>
wisdom.” What this meant to them may not be what it means to us by
today’s<br>
standards and language. The bottom line is that both wanted something
more<br>
than an ordinary human condition.<br><br>
Dante: "He was one of the most learned Italian laymen of his
day,<br>
intimately familiar with Aristotelian logic and natur! al
philosophy,<br>
theology (he had a special affinity for the thought of Albert the Great
and<br>
Thomas Aquinas), and classical literature. His writings reflect this in
its<br>
mingling of philosophical and theological language, invoking Aristotle
and<br>
the neo-Platonists side by side with the poet of the psalms. Like
Aquinas,<br>
Dante wished to summon his audience to the practice of
philosophical<br>
wisdom, though by means of truths embedded in his own poetry, rather
than<br>
mysteriously embodied in scripture." (Stanford University)<br><br>
Let us not dismiss of the world and society of Dante and his ideas
about<br>
the transhuman. <br>
Today we can harshly criticize those who have spiritual beliefs, but
we<br>
leaned that it is not completely appropriate since spirituality
also<br>
includes those who simply want peace of mind. Since the
transhumanist<br>
community has grown to include several religious sectors, we cannot
defame<br>
Dante or Huxley or any of us for our personal unconventional
views.<br><br>
As such, an afterlife in the far past could possibly equal an
afterlife<br>
today, as we know it as technological immortality. In Dante's time,
there<br>
were no such things as molecular engineering, cryonics, and the medical
and<br>
scientific innovations that we are aware of today that could make
our<br>
dreams of a longer life feasible.<br><br>
There are many steps in the direction of enlightenment, and some of
the<br>
footprints belong to Dante.<br><br>
Natasha Vita-More<br><br>
<br>
</i>Do you Yahoo!?<br>
Discover all that’s new in <a href="http://my.yahoo.com">My Yahoo!</a>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
extropy-chat mailing list<br>
extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org<br>
<a href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat" eudora="autourl">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Tahoma" size=2 color="#808080">Natasha Vita-More
<dl>
<dd><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/" eudora="autourl">http://www.natasha.cc</a>
</dl>
<dd>[_______________________________________________
<dl>
<dd>President, Extropy Institute
<a href="http://www.extropy.org/" eudora="autourl">http://www.extropy.org</a>
<dd>[_____________________________________________________</font><font color="#808080">
</font>
<dd><font face="Tahoma" size=2 color="#808080">Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture </font><a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/" eudora="autourl"><font face="Tahoma" size=2 color="#C0C0C0">http://www.transhumanist.biz</a></font><font color="#C0C0C0"> </font>
</dl>
</dl></body>
</html>