[ExI] Is Transhumanism Coercive?

[The Avantguardian]

----- Original Message -----
> From: Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2011 10:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Is Transhumanism Coercive?
> 
> Joseph Bloch wrote:
>> An interesting article by Ron Bailey over at Reason, concerning his
>> debate with Peter Lawler last week:
>> 
>> http://reason.com/archives/2011/10/18/transhumanism-vs-bioconservati
>>   
> Similar themes came up in my debate yesterday evening at the Manchester 
> University student union, where I was debating David king from Human Genetics 
> Alert. He argued (from a pretty leftist standpoint) that enhancement embodies 
> the ideal of capitalism and since capitalism is bad for human value and 
> diversity hence most enhancement is bad. As he saw it, western liberal 
> individualism promotes uniformization in respect to the market. I argued that 
> the fact that his claim already disproves itself: we live in a society where 
> diversity is highly valued - if it wasn't we couldn't care less if 
> enhancement reduced it. The coerciveness of enhancement is like the coerciveness 
> of fitting into existing culture: there are plenty of things to be concerned 
> with, but we do have plenty of freedom *in liberal individualistic open 
> societies* to try to change them.
> 

The coerciveness of enhancement is the coerciveness of survival. It is no more unethically coercive than nature is. Nature whose floods force you to swim and whose lions force you to run. Bioconservatives want to handicap us in the Red Queen's Race because they don't have the vision to see that this comfortable modern environment that they have snugly ensconced themselves is by no means assured to continue indefinitely. They don't realize that an asteroid, a plague, or even simple social unrest can turn their world upside down in less than 24 hours. Perhaps the Donner Party debated ethics as they dined on their fallen comrades. In any case ethics never stopped breast implants so I doubt they will prevent a super soldier or other example of enhanced human in the next century or so.
 
> Now off to London to talk ethics of brain interfaces and do a BBC interview on 
> enhancers... ah, the life of the jetset (or rather, train-set) bioethicist! ;-)
 
Have fun. :-) BTW thanks for the cool data regarding my fastest language question.
 

Stuart LaForge


"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things bought 
and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke