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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>> </span></font>Someone asked me
recently what the impulse behind transhumanism was. I said survival.
<br>
<br>
<font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Arial;color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Transhumanists seek not just to survive,
but to transcend and to become something more than merely human.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>The singular phrasing of the question as
“what is the” impulse is limiting. Movements generally have many
impulses. 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:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><font
size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>-<font size=1 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'>
</span></font></span></span></font><![endif]><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>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. 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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'>Brandon</span></font></st1:City></st1:place><font size=2
color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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