[extropy-chat] The Extropian wars

[Damien Broderick]

 kevinfreels at hotmail.com wrote:

> >I just had a thought, but I doubt it was the first time it has been
brought up here.
> >
> >When the first "uploads" become available and people are actually able to
become immortal, and when cryo-preserved people canbe brought back, the
religious establishment is going to go beserk.

>"Permutation City" by Greg Egan.

An earlier novel (although not a terribly well argued one IMHO) is 1960s' sf
bad boy Norman Spinrad's DEUS X, where a dying Catholic priest agrees to be
uploaded to learn whether he retains a soul in this new embodiment; the
shock finding is that he doesn't. Spinrad referred to this fictional outcome
in his dismissive ASIMOV'S review of THE SPIKE,

http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0106/stories/asimovs.onbooks.shtml

as if his novel had settled the question in advance and rendered any further
discussion of transhumanist uploading prospects irrelevant, stupidly
reductionist, or Pollyannaish.

Damien Broderick