From: Carlos Gonzalia (gonzalia@cs.chalmers.se)
Date: Sat Sep 01 2001 - 06:31:45 MDT
>From: "Russell Blackford" <RussellBlackford@bigpond.com>
>
>Perhaps there is a sense in which none of this matters for the cause of
>transhumanism. However, I'd like to think that transhumanism can be linked
>to other values that intellectually engaged and emotionally decent people
>take seriously. I dread to think what impression is being created in the
>minds of any postgraduate students - the public intellectuals of tomorrow -
>who might be poring over the list's archives trying to understand
>transhumanism from a sociological or similar perspective. If they do come to
>a misconception that transhumanism is linked to inhumane attitudes, I'd say
>they'd have some justification for it.
I know what answer I would have given you five years ago or so. I've un-learnt
a lot since then, but you can take this old attitude as a fair representative
of what a lot of such postgraduate students in my country would probably
tell you after poring through the list archives: "you are willing to ignore or
even build barriers around misery and suffering, letting the people there live
in their doom, all for your dream of Future... and that reeks of 'the end
justifies the means', and invalidates what you want to do in my eyes".
As I said, I've changed my ideas a good deal since then. Your long-term goals
are awesome and worth pursuing, and I think there really is a good chance the
changes brought in would effectively do away with many of the issues that
have plagued mankind for so long. Right now my only objection would be (as I
said in another post) that people here seem to underestimate the power of
backlash, and you need to find ways to change a lot of mindsets out there,
before the angry and scared demands of the short-term goal seekers would
tramp all over you and your project.
Carlos
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