[extropy-chat] The meme of transhumanism

[Keith Henson]

At 10:23 AM 3/5/2007 -0500, Terry wrote:

snip

>My reply : Memes/knowledge behave like genes according to Richard
>Dawkins in that both processes involved replication.

Taken cautiously, that's correct.  Replication, variation and selection are 
of course the processes of evolution.

snip

>Transhumanism is a meme yet to be tested in the world of ideas to see
>if it works to liberate the mind from psychological stress.

I think you miss the point of memes and genes.  While there *is* a feedback 
from reality, memes and genes are "successful" or not based on how well 
they spread.  It isn't a measure of the success of a meme to "liberate the 
mind from psychological stress."

Quite the opposite can occur as when Dawkins talks about the co-propagate 
of the god/hellfire memes.

>If this
>meme's objective is extropy, why does it proclaims itself as absolutely
>infallible in connection with science when the latter does not claim
>absolute infallibility?

I was not aware that extropy and/or transhumanism claimed "absolute 
infallibility."  Do you have a source for this remarkable claim?

Keith Henson