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

[Stefano Vaj]

On 8 February 2010 19:18, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:
> Damien, you seem to be suggesting ("Still, Max is quoted as saying") that
> Hughes "implication of antidemocratic or top-down bias" is understandable
> because of my statement that "Democratic arrangements have no intrinsic
> value; they have value only to the extent that they enable us to achieve
> shared goals while protecting our freedom." If so, I don't understand how
> you can say that. 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?
> Are authoritarian arrangements the only conceivable alternative?

I have another remark. How comes that self-declared technoprogressives
and socialists find themselves aligned to a ritual, mechanical defence
of what Marx used to call the "board of directors of the bourgeoisie"?
:-)

Speaking of democracy more in general, a feel-good concept which has
been used in so many different meanings, I am personally rather fond
of the concept of "popular sovereignty", or rather "sovereignties",
firstly in terms of collective self-determination (a principle having
much to do with transhumanism, IMHO), secondly as it suggests that we
have the freedom to adopt the norms and legal systems of our choice,
rather than having simply to recognise or enforcing  a set of
universal and eternal laws, thirdly because it implies political
pluralism (meaning a radical wariness of dreams of world governments
of any kind which would be entitled to ignore the willingness or not
of a community to participate in them).

All in all, this also sounds as the best bet of transhumanism,
including in terms of "national Darwinism" which would strongly
discourage the implementation of neoluddite policies even by
governments who might be ideologically tempted by them.

-- 
Stefano Vaj