[extropy-chat] Serenity: "...make people better."

[The Avantguardian]

> > On 10/13/05, Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net>
> wrote:
> > If transhumanists came across as saying "we want
> technology to improve
> > ourselves, if other people want to use it too
> that's fine with us, it's a
> > matter of individual choice", most people's
> reaction wouldn't be worse than
> > "eh, those guys are weird".

> >> On 10/13/05, Russell Wallace
> <russell.wallace at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The reason people like Fukuyama regard
> transhumanism as something to be
> > feared and hated is that they (not without reason)
> perceive transhumanists
> > as saying "we want technology to improve
> ourselves, those who join us will
> > be saved, all others will be forcibly converted or
> exterminated like the
> > inferior creatures you are!"

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk.bruere at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The reason people like Fukuyama regard
> transhumanism as something to be
> feared and hated is that they (not without reason)
> perceive transhumanists
> as saying "we want technology to improve ourselves,
> those who join us will
> be immortal geniuses, all others will be
> unemployable retards!"

So the question remains what if any of these reactions
do we want to engender? On one hand, Dirk and
Russell's message is guaranteed to bring us stiff
opposition and controversy. This will in turn bring us
much publicity, mostly bad, although it is said that
there is no such thing as bad publicity. 

Adrian's message on the other hand, will not garner us
much publicity good or bad, but will allow us to work
our plans to fruition without too much opposition. 

So I suppose the dillemma boils down to whether or not
progress or notoriety is more important to our cause?
Notoriety will gain us more converts no matter what we
are pitching. Advertise sewage well enough and people
will buy it, such is the nature of publicity. But will
we ever get enough converts to effect the majority
necessary for support from a democratically elected
government? I seriously doubt it.

However without SOME converts will we probably not
attain the resources we need to fulfill our ambitions
either, even if we were completely unopposed.

So perhaps our message should be more subtle, the
interpretation of which can constitute a qualifying
test for membership:

"We want the technology to improve ourselves, those
who join us will be improved, all others will be in
the hands of nature and nature's God."
 

   

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen

"Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions, but nearly all religions come from that hope" - Robert G. Ingersoll


		
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