[ExI] If anyone wants to Respond to the IEET piece re "Problems of Transhumanism"

[Damien Broderick]

On 2/8/2010 12:18 PM, Max More wrote:

> Saying that democratic arrangements (as they exist at any particular
> time) have no intrinsic value is not in the least equivalent to saying
> that authoritarian control is better. Should we not strive for something
> better than the ugly system of democracy that currently exists?

Certainly; see Krugman's essay in the NYT today for a truly egregious 
example of "democracy" in inaction in the US.

> Are authoritarian arrangements the only conceivable alternative?

No, and I think I'd favor a decision structure closer to a rhizome than 
a ladder or pyramid, which is why I'm a sort of communitarian anarchist. 
(A utopian prospect, admittedly, because people have largely been conned 
into becoming--as the gibe has it--sheeple.)

But as I said a moment ago in another post, your statement doesn't sound 
like a ringing endorsement of the position that "liberal democracy is 
the best path to betterment," which is the point Hughes is making about 
 >Humanism. Where he goes from there is questionable if not absurd *as a 
generalization*--but there's certainly a technocratic, elitist tendency 
in a lot of >H discourse I've read here over the last 15 years or so.

Damien Broderick