[extropy-chat] Fwd: SURVIVAL: An impulse behind transhumanism?

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jul 3, 2006, at 11:48 AM, nvitamore at austin.rr.com wrote:

>
> From: Samantha Atkins sjatkins at mac.com
>
>> I am not sure that survival is where the roots are.  Humanity seems
>> to have a deep yearning to overcome various limitations and forms of
>> suffering.  That yearning is seen is religions, in philosophy, in
>> art, in various idealistic notions and systems, and in
>> transhumanism.    Transhumanism seems to be a manifestation of that
>> ancient drive made aware of science and technological
>> possibilities.   So I think the impulse behind transhumanism goes
>> beyond survival or at least that 'survival' misses important nuances.
>
> What motivates the desire to overcoming limitations, if not a need to
> survive the limitations?

To have life more abundantly.

>
> Are religious practices and rituals a means to help people survive  
> current
> conditions, both mental and physical?

This is only part of what they are though.  There is a strong  
"impulse" to imagining a radically better world.  There is an  
"impulse" to self/world transformation in the direction that is  
perceived as better.  It does not appear to me that all of this is  
subsumed under mere survival.

> Is art a means to overcome (survive)
> mundacity or a repetitious-constant-state of life by creating  
> alterative
> ways of seeing the world?  Is that ancient drive you refer to  
> motivated by
> a need to survive?  Was the first technology (tool) built to  
> protect or
> kill in order to survive?
>
> What is the impulse behind survival?

This does not seem to me to be the question or part of the question  
you originally asked.

- samantha