From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Wed Jun 13 2001 - 00:38:10 MDT
Russell Blackford wrote:
>
> I'd rate my most important contribution to the general culture in recent
> years to be my writings in defence of contemporary or expected developments
> in bio-medical science, including proposals for radical life extension,
> human cloning and germ-line therapy. I expect to spend much of my time and
> energy in the foreseeable future writing about such issues, giving stick to
> the religious and quasi-religious irrationalists roaming at large in this
> field of debate.
A lot hinges on just what you mean by "rational" and
"religious". I believe that it is not only possible but even
necessary to have some handle on at least what I would call the
"spiritual" if not the "religious" aspects of existence if one
is to be not only "rational" but have much real "wisdom".
Although to be honest it sets even my teeth on edge to have to
dance around these concepts at times. But I don't think the
"religious" have any monopoly on "irrational" and generally
boneheaded ideas and practices.
>
> I should say upfront that I would be unwilling to adopt the label "an
> extropian", or any other label suggesting that I am committed to a
> ready-made philosophy or other world view.
GOOD. A free-thinking onery sort. You'll get along fine. Not
that you care or should care. <g>
>I can imagine issues or
> circumstances in which I might have a viewpoint different from that of most
> people who would call themselves extropians, though this list clearly caters
> for a very wide diversity of views. In any event, I am persuaded that
> humanity and the human condition as we know them will be superseded within
> the next few centuries, if not the next few decades, and that this is, at
> least generally, desirable.
It depends a bit on what we are superseded by, of what happens
to us and how we grow and develop into or along with whatever is
coming. I have a lot of room for humanity transcending its
condition and definiing limits and thus becoming something
other. I have much more of a problem with those that think that
as long as what comes next is a LOT smarter (even if it is
generally perfectly nasty) that it is perfectly fine if it wipes
us out.
- samantha
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