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At 12:58 AM 6/30/2006, Brandon wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">> </font>Someone asked me
recently what the impulse behind transhumanism was. I said
survival. <br><br>
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Transhumanists seek not just to
survive, but to transcend and to become something more than merely
human.</font></blockquote><br>
Yes, although I am looking at the "impulse" that motivates the
desires. Improving the human condition is what transhumanism is
actively seeking to accomplish. Why if it is not driven by the
impulse to survive?<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080"> The singular phrasing of
the question as “what is the” impulse is limiting. Movements generally
have many impulses. </font></blockquote><br>
Certainly.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">To become movements there has
to be something that speaks to a multitude of people from varying
backgrounds. Transhumanism is derived from several impulses. I have no
idea exactly what these impulses are, but here are a few
possibilities:<br>
<br>
-</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1 color="#000080">
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Epic Curiosity. The
desire to know more about the universe and the self. To reason out the
hows and whys of reality. Epic Curiosity is not purely analytical; it is
also artistic and vibrant. This impulse seems to me to be fundamental to
any human who is at some basic level of education and
need-fulfillment.<br>
-</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1 color="#000080">
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Rational Truth.
Transhumanists are possessed of a desire to seek total rational truth.
Truth that begins as conjecture and is tested as theory. Truth that is
subject to revision should new evidence come to light.<br>
-</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1 color="#000080">
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Ethical Hedonism. We
want to survive because we like life. We like the trappings and
sensations of living. We want to explore the complete potential of
experience, but do so in a way that allows us to reset the system and try
again in other directions. We do not hope to merely survive forever, but
to survive on our personal eudaimonic terms. We want to extend our
ability to live beyond its biological limitations not just so we can
continue living, but so we can live broader, bolder, enriched lives. We
want our cake and we want to eat it, too. At the same time,
transhumanists recognize the ethical limitations of personal desire and
the social objective of establishing a posthuman community.<br>
-</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1 color="#000080">
</font><font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Intellectual Empathy.
Many transhumanists can make themselves feel pretty horrible thinking
about all sorts of things that other people simply don’t think about. We
understand the immense and catastrophic information loss each time
someone dies. We conjecture, in a sort of physicalist way, that death as
a systemic process is probably avoidable. Moreover, we understand that to
not make an effort to find out for sure if death is curable, we condemn
our society to continued catastrophic information loss. We feel an
emotional response to this. This is the transhuman social
imperative.<br>
<br>
I’m sure there are other things that could be classified as types of
impulses. I don’t think survival is enough. Just wanting to survive
wouldn’t necessarily lead to transhumanism. It’s one thing to want to
survive, it’s another thing to be perfectly willing to survive in a
non-biological substrate and to not discard that scenario out of hand as
impossible. </font></blockquote><br>
We could find a bevy of impulses to be sure.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="arial" size=2 color="#000080">Transhumanism is maybe a kind
of radical supercharged survivalism and it’s all of these other impulses
that push it beyond just wanting to stay alive.</font></blockquote><br>
Well said Brandon. <br><br>
Natasha<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<dl>
<dd><font size=2><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Natasha
</a><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Vita-More</a>
<dd>Cultural Strategist - Designer
<dd>President, <a href="http://www.extropy.org/">Extropy Institute</a>
<dd>Member, <a href="http://www.profuturists.com/">Association of
Professional Futurists</a>
<dd>Founder, <a href="http://www.transhumanist.biz/">Transhumanist Arts
& Culture</a> <br><br>
</font>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><i>If you draw a circle in the
sand and study only what's inside the circle, then that is a
closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the circle and
everything outside the circle, then that is an open system perspective. -
</i>Buckminster Fuller<br>
<br><br></font>
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