From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Mon Mar 11 2002 - 02:36:38 MST
[snip]
Six billion brains think
>more than one (not necessarily in my direction, but at least a lot of
>thinking gets done).
...yeh, but if five and a half million of those are thinking your views are
dangerous and must be suppressed, that's not necessarily beneficial to your
survival.
[snip] My aesthetic is more along the line of "how can I get out of here?"
...how about 'how can I get out of here without getting lynched?'
[snip]
> > > I think assuming transhumanists to be genetically different or the
> > > result of some special revelation overthrowing the illusions plaguing
> > > the rest of humanity is quite premature.
>Premature to assume. In fact, the genetic determinants are probably just as
>irrelevant as genetic determinants for political views or taste in clothing
>- there are subtle effects there, but not anything that overrides our wills
...I feel it's the other way round...I feel it's something that prevents us
from having our wills overwritten (by indoctrination, fear, enculturation)..
I think it's that ability which frees our minds to dare to fight to survive
against any odds. And I think it's vast. It underlies all of our creativity,
inspiration, actions and words.
[snip] assuming that "we" are somehow fundamentally different from "them"
sets
>up an insurmountable barrier for communication. We might be feeling the
>transhuman man's burden when we try to bring the poor benighted luddites to
>truth and progress, but the inherent smugness of that view will leak
through
>and cause resentment and eventual backlash.
> It is better to realize that we
>transhumanists aren't that different from anybody else, we just happen to
>have a few uncommon views and somewhat larger ambitions.
...We are different in the same way that a group with a vaccination against
a deadly disease is different from a group affected by the disease and
without a vaccination...we can share it with them or we can let them die.
And the problem we face is...they're terrified of needles...
...so how do invent the hypospray?
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