[ExI] Humanity+ as self guided evolution

Emlyn emlynoregan at gmail.com
Mon Jan 12 02:53:30 UTC 2009


Bzzt, no! Next contestant please...

Seriously, do any of us here think that consideration of natural
selection should be the guide in transhuman self modification?

I guess in some degenerate sense, bits of natural selection always
apply. But what does this mean if we are living indefinite lifespans?
Or if we are reproducing by creating new genomes from scratch rather
than the genetic lucky dip we run now? Not so much I think.

And really, do we want natural selection involved here? It has always
seemed to me that the whole point of transhumanism was to get away
from nature's brutal bootstrap, and take charge of the processes of
life, so that we can substitute in our own arbitrarily evolved but
much loved values; love, compassion, fairness, altruism, opportunity!

Invoking natural selection in the same breath as transhumanism just
implies the bad days of eugenics. No.

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlyntech.wordpress.com - coding related
http://point7.wordpress.com - downshifting and ranting
(http://emlynoregan.com is currently down, see
http://point7.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/scarcity-mode-emlynoregancom-is-down/)

2009/1/12 Stefan Pernar <stefan.pernar at gmail.com>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> The quote "The only constant is change" is commonly attributed to the Greek
> philosopher Heraclitus and embodies the insight that nothing ever stays the
> same. Charles Darwin later amended this idea to include the concept of a
> qualifying retention mechanism favoring certain changes over others by
> weeding out those changes that are detrimental to our ancestors existence:
> natural selection.
>
> We have reached a point in our history when very soon technology will enable
> us to make virtually arbitrary changes to ourself. The mechanism of natural
> selection however will continue to apply. Taking the evolutionary
> perspective into account in our decision process concerning what changes to
> make and which ones to discard will be an existential guide in helping us to
> affect a positive transcension by preempting natural selection. For only
> that which does not run against the plan of evolution has a chance to
> continue to be.
>
> I am running for the board of directors of Humanity+. Do vote for me if you
> want to see this philosophy represented on the board =>
> http://www.transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/hbrdc/
>
> Thank you for your time and all the best for the new year of 2009.
>
> Stefan Pernar
> --
> Stefan Pernar
> Skype: Stefan.Pernar
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat



More information about the extropy-chat mailing list