[ExI] Enhanced humans: the new arms (nephilim) race

[Joseph Bloch]

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 1:22 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
> Ja.  If anything, transforming into a posthuman would automatically mean a
> dramatic gain in dignity.

Unfortunately, one of the most common arguments I've run across
against Transhumanism is the "loss of human dignity" argument. Casual
dismissal isn't the right way to deal with it, as it seems to be
growing amongst those who can't find any argument against
Transhumanist technologies and techniques from a utilitarian point of
view.

To take but one example, when Leon Kass was chairman of the
President's council on Bioethics, they produced an anti-cloning
polemic entitled "Human Cloning and Human Dignity." It doesn't
surprise me in the least that the article posits resistance to human
enhancement on "human dignity" grounds.

It's a plea that Transhumanists need to develop a sound argument
against, and get that argument out there. We could well find ourselves
losing in the marketplace of ideas before we even knew there was a
battle, if we go along with the "well, of course it doesn't offend
human dignity; that's so obvious it doesn't even bear stating" line of
thinking. Because to a lot of people, it's not so obvious.

Joseph
http://www.transhumanismtoday.com