From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@ricochet.net)
Date: Wed Jun 06 2001 - 22:03:04 MDT
François-René ÐVB Rideau wrote:
>I question the claim that ethical problems can have no
>answer this claim is the relativist claim of barbary
>itself: "nothing is more justified than anything else".
>
>Ethics can definitely provide answers to some (obviously
>not all) problems. Libertarians are people who take ethics
>very seriously, and thus so do self-respecting extropians.
>
>Without ethics, you cannot be transhuman. You're not even human.
Quite right. But this hardly means that it will be easy.
The first requirement is that an extension of ethics into
transhuman territory be consistent with the highest moral
principles already proven by successful societies, and our
best philosophers.
(That last qualification provides the wriggle-room we'll
need.)
I don't think it logically possible to advance consistent
ethical systems that are insensitive to human or animal
suffering. But dealing with certain axioms, such as,
"The Earth should be left to Nature, and there is no
place for Humankind there", will require finesse. Not
that we aren't up to the job.
Lee Corbin
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