[extropy-chat] Re: [wta-talk] Group Hug

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 pgptag at gmail.com
Sat Jun 12 09:12:30 UTC 2004


Thanks Mike for this call to reason. I agree with what you said, and
wish to make some additional considerations.
We have several transhumanist groups, each with its own specific
flavour. The main differences are political (the socialist vs.
libertarian struggle). One flavour dominates in some groups, the other
dominates in some other gropus.
Time of the broken disk (I must have said this hundred of times): SO WHAT?
As Fabio (Estropico) was among the first to make explicit a couple of
years ago, the Central Transhumanist Meme (CTM) in itself is
compatible with both the socialist and libertarian worldviews. Why
don't we just leave it at that and focus more on the CTM itself?
Face it, the transhumanist movement will always be split in separate
groups, and none of the separate groups is likely to achieve a
critical mass on its own. If we want to achieve a critical mass, we
must find some way to collaborate on the important issues.
Instead of fighting OVER politics in transhumanist fora, we should
fight FOR transhumanism in political fora. If you are a socialist,
argue for transhumanism in your camp. If you are a libertarian, argue
for transhumanism in your camp. And let our transhumanist lists become
meme factories to facilitate this work.
I don't want transhumanism to become one of those all encompassing
ideologies that dictate all sorts of fine grained behaviours to their
subscribers. Ideologies too ambitious become a cage for ideas, let's
leave that to Opus Dei and the Raelians. I don't want transhumanism to
tell me how many sugar cubes I should put in my morning coffee, what
my religious ideas should be, what sexual preferences I should have,
or what party I should vote for.
We share a beautiful and urgent vision (R.Cooper on the wta-talk
list). Let's focus on converting this vision to reality. So I support
Mike's call for a group hug, and will do my best to facilitate it.

On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:44:45 -0400, MIKE TREDER <iph1954 at msn.com> wrote:
> I appeal to everyone – WTA members, Extropians, transhumanists of all
> stripes – to refocus on our highest priorities. Let's begin by making
> positive statements about what we must stand for; remember why we came
> together in the first place; stand in a virtual circle, hold cyber hands,
> sing a couple of inspiring songs, have an Internet group hug, and then get
> back to work.
> 
> See you in the future!
> 
> Mike Treder
> Executive Director, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology



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