| I've started calling this the "argument from helplessness." We are helpless to prevent technological change, so we have to adapt to it. (Or, as the Buddha said, "If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it.") This attitude is curiously at odds with the transhumanist notion that we are heading towards a world of increasing choice. Which is it to be?
It's also a straw-man argument to suggest that people who aren't transhumanists don't talk about transhumanist issues. They do, and there's lots of exploration of the future going on that is neither "scare tactics" nor transhumanist. I've published four novels so far that explore the issues in depth. So I'm not sure how that would make me or my readers "foolish and irresponsible." And where did I claim that transhumanists were the "only bad guys?" The world has them aplenty. But not all humanity is "greedy and grandiose," although, I can see that if you believed that then you might want us all to be replaced...
You may want to surf the waves, but I want to drive.
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