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Re: Transhumanism Skewered
by Karl on Wednesday April 19, @08:16AM
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| Well, that was my point, wasn't it? If the greedy and grandiose have made our decisions for us in the past, then they will be the ones driving any real transhumanist bloom as well. Your incredulity at my suggestion shows how far you are from believing that it could be any other way. So tell me again why I should want a transhuman future? |
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Re: Transhumanism Skewered
by D. Amato on Wednesday April 19, @02:11PM
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You skewed my comment. All humanity is greedy and grandious. To claim transhumanists are the only "bad guys" and you and your little club of dudley do-rights are fighting on the side of "good" is a farce and a lie on your part. Transhumanists recognize that changes are coming and are attempting to talk about them rationally and honestly without a lot of lies or scare tactics. To not discuse these ideas or recognize the changes technology has already made and will continue to make is foolish and irresponsible. To pretend it isn't happening is fantasy. To weep in your beer and bemoan some lost simpler more human-centric times is defeatist. As my younger brother, a surfer, once said to me,
"It's waves, baby. It's all waves. Just ride it."
Sufing into the Future
D. Amato
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Re: Transhumanism Skewered
by Karl on Thursday April 20, @07:10AM
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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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Re: Transhumanism Skewered
by Jimmy Mac on Wednesday October 04, @01:09PM
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Lots of lies actually, or perhaps more likely just delusions about technological advance. Oh well, if it helps you sleep at night. **shrug**
Kurzweil certainly self deludes. I lost respect for the man when I read the nonsense he writes when he tries to pimp 'AARON the cybernetic artist' screensaver.
Scaretactics? That depends on what you are scared of I guess. ;)
"it's just gonna happen, nothing you can do man!" yeh right. That sounds like a scaretactic. :P
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