[extropy-chat] [wta-talk] Fighting mad! (was transhumanist nut jobs&transhumanism going extinct)

mike99 mike99 at lascruces.com
Mon Jul 17 23:09:24 UTC 2006


A quick Google search finds 444,000 hits for "nut job" (and that's without
the plural "jobs").

Among those accused of being nut jobs are:

- radio talk host Michael Graham [NOTE: I don't know anything about this
guy.]
- Anti-Gay Phelps Clan [I have heard of these creeps.]
- Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
- Ann Coulter [needs no introduction]
- Minnesota State Sen. Tom Reynolds
- President Bush
...and a host of others

I doubt that any of these people is suing over the allegation that they are
"nut jobs."

Why should transhumanist do so? Perhaps suing would suggest to people that
we strongly object to such a characterization because we secretly believe it
to be accurate.

I don't believe transhumanists are nut jobs. Nor do I think that it makes
any significant difference if some clueless journalist for WIRED magazine
believes that we are.

Let's not get all worked up over a passing slight.

Let's work on showing what we are really about by accomplishing our goals.


Regards,

Michael LaTorra

mike99 at lascruces.com
mlatorra at nmsu.edu
English Dept., New Mexico State University

"For any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes
towards slavery."
-- Jacob Bronowski

"Experiences only look special from the inside of the system."
-- Eugen Leitl

"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman: a rope across
an abyss - a dangerous going across, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous
looking back, a dangerous shuddering and staying still."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Member:
Board of Directors, World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
Board of Directors, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies:
http://ieet.org/
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: www.alcor.org
Society for Universal Immortalism: www.universalimmortalism.org
President, Zen Center of Las Cruces: www.zencenteroflascruces.org


> -----Original Message-----
> From: wta-talk-bounces at transhumanism.org
> [mailto:wta-talk-bounces at transhumanism.org]On Behalf Of The
> Avantguardian
> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 4:11 PM
> To: World Transhumanist Association Discussion List
> Subject: RE: [wta-talk] Fighting mad! (was transhumanist nut
> jobs&transhumanism going extinct)
>
>
>
>
> --- mike99 <mike99 at lascruces.com> wrote:
>
> > Stuart,
> > Thanks for your concern about the reputation of
> > transhumanism. But I
> > wouldn't worry too much about WIRED's calumny. At
> > least they spelled
> > "transhumanist" correctly!
> >
> > Seriously, speaking for myself as one of the WTA
> > Board of Directors, I would
> > vote against any proposal to sue WIRED for libel in
> > this case. I have two
> > reasons, one philosophical and one practical:
> >
> > 1) As a matter of political philosophy, I believe
> > that WIRED should be free,
> > within rather broad limits, to call us whatever they
> > wish. We are also free
> > to disagree with them and to make our views known as
> > widely as possible.
> >
> > 2) As a practical matter, we do not have the
> > resources of time and money to
> > expend on a libel case where we have suffered no
> > major harm. Being called a
> > "nut job" is more a matter of opinion by the WIRED
> > writer, and is harder to
> > argue against, than if, for example, they had called
> > us "mass murderers" or
> > "child molesters" which are serious charges that we
> > could easily disprove.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel
> >From the wikipedia entry on "libel":
>
> In states that recognize defamation per se, people
> making a defamation claim for certain statements do
> not need to prove that the statement was defamatory:
>
> Allegations or imputations "injurious to another in
> their trade, business, or profession"
>
> Allegations or imputations "of loathsome disease"
> (historically leprosy and sexually-transmitted
> disease, now also including MENTAL ILLNESS)
>
> Allegations or imputations of "unchastity" (usually
> only in unmarried people and sometimes only in women)
>
> Allegations or imputations of criminal activity
> (sometimes only crimes of moral turpitude) [2]
>
> Calling us "nut jobs" is an allegation of MENTAL
> ILLNESS. You don't think that prospective new members
> won't be turned away when they read that WIRED
> MAGAZINE thinks we are "nut jobs"?
>
>
>
>
> Stuart LaForge
> alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu
>
> "God doesn't play dice with the universe." - Albert Einstein
>
> "Einstein, don't tell God what to do." - Neils Bohr
>
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