Why most transhumanists will need to move to Mars

From: marc_geddes (marc_geddes@yahoo.co.nz)
Date: Fri Jul 12 2002 - 00:08:06 MDT


 I feel that in order for transhumanist memes to ultimately succeed, most of
 us will have to migrate to a Mars colony for at least a couple of decades.

The reason: Political inertia and dogma on Earth. The current outmoded
belief systems of this world have become too entrenched to be directly
overcome. Look at the US... it's the most creative, free society on Earth.
But its government has grown into a many tentacled monster that is choking
the
life out of it.

The worst fears of Ayn Rand have come true. When I first read 'The
Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged' I thought the characters were caricatures
and the decaying societies she described could never come to pass in Western
democratic nations. When communism finally collapsed (1989-1991) I had
hoped
that at last the forces of darkness were coming to an end.

Boy was I mistaken! You can't get rid of the anti-progress gang so easily.
I found out that they had been infiltrating the US from within.... Rotting
away at its insides for decades and decades. The names have changed but
it's the same old gang. Rampant political correctness, environmentalism,
post-modernism, religious views: the anti-progress gang has almost completed
it's take-off of American universities and political life.

Most of the policies of the communist party of 1920 have been adopted. The
US
today is not what is was. If the founding fathers were alive they would
weep.
It's regulation.... Regulation and more regulation. Massive regulation at
all levels. This is bad enough, but to cap it off we're seeing a resurgence
of religious fundamentalism that is very disturbing to behold. Born-again
Christians are everywhere. And remember that a militant black Muslim not so
long ago succeeded in organizing a '1 million man march' on Washington.

And the US is supposed to be the most 'open society' on Earth. Everywhere
else is even worse. (With the only possible exception being Britain)

Sorry if this seems a bit of a rant, but I'm only telling it like I see it.
Under these conditions I do not believe that transhumanist memes can ever
flourish, nor do I believe that its program for human enhancement will be
allowed to proceed.

Now I'm certainly not saying that transhuamanists should stop promoting the
things they believe in. I'm just saying that I believe the battle cannot be
won if you try to wage it from within the Western democracies as they stand
at
present.

Now I saw some posts about 'libertarian enclaves', but the idea is not
radical
enough. These enclaves would still be in the US, and subject to government
regulation. What about the idea of trying to form a new nation somewhere?
Still not radical enough. To quote Robert Zubrin from 'The Case For Mars',
"the cops are just too close"

The posthuman world is going to require radically new politics and
technology,
which will never be permitted here on Earth. In short... we will need to
move
off world.

In "The Case For Mars" Robert Zubrin brilliantly makes the case for Mars as
the logical choice for the first off-world colonies. Only on Mars do the
right conditions exist.... (The most important being sufficient amounts of
organic materials).

Transhumanists need to establish colonies on Mars that are free of political
control from our Earth-bound friends. I'm not suggesting any particular
political model... I think we will need to experiment with many different
models. Different colonies will try different politics... it's a matter
of experimentation to see what works best. For instance we could have
a libertarian colony, and another colony practicing something along the
lines of James Hughes's 'Democratic Transhumanism'. One colony could try
'laissez-faire capitalism' but other colonies could try quite different
things
- for instance a 'gift economy' or even new kinds of socialism for those
who still think it could be made to work. It's important to realize that
transhumanist technologies are going to open up new political possibilities,
which we cannot clearly see at this point.

I want to make to make it clear that establishing off-world colonies should
NOT be a case of saying 'to hell with the world' but instead a case of
experimentation in order to set an example FOR the world. Think of the
colonists of the 'New World' who came from Europe to America. They
eventually
established a new country (the US) from, which came such as explosion of new
ideas and innovations as the rest of the world had never seen.

The purpose of the transhumanist Mars colonies is ultimately to set an
example
for the Earth. When the rest of the world sees that the new system works,
THEN and only then will transhumanists have a chance to convince everyone
else
that their system is the right way to live.

Apart from politics there is another major reason why I believe that
transhumanist Mars colonies will be a necessity. That reason is of course,
technology. The promise of nano-tech, biotech and AI cannot be overstated,
but nor can the dangers. An excellent paper by Nick Bostrom recently looked
at 'Existential Threats' that could result in the extinction of humanity
should these technologies be misused.

The ideal way to vastly reduce these threats is to develop the s.
technologies off world (namely on Mars). Should something go s.
spectacularly wrong, then humanity would have a much greater of s.
containing thing s.
All this is pretty logical and basic to my way of thinking, so I'm a s.
little puzzled as to why extropians do not devote more attention to s.
promoting the colonization of Mar s.

Any way, to me it's more or less inevitable that things must happen this
way.
The transhumanist program will reach a certain point and then the Luddites
and the political inertia of Earth-bound bureaucracy will block it. Further
progress will require off-world colonies - and Mars is the only realistic
place for the first ones. There will be lots of experimentation with
different political systems and after several decades it will become clear
which ones work and which ones don't. At the same time nano, bio and AI
will
be developing to their greatest heights (because they will be free of Earth
bound regulation). Dangers and benefits will become clearer and any
disasters
will be confined to the small number of colonists. Eventually someone will
build a true superhuman intelligence (true AI) and the Singularity will have
come. Should something go wrong and the AI goes nuts it will be confined to
the 'box' which is Mars.

In the end, if all goes well, a truly successful, integrated 'post-human'
society will emerge on Mars, which can serve as a template for the people
back
home. And what will transhumanists do then? I quote you the ending of
'Atlas
Shrugged' by Ayn Rand:

"The faint glitter of light weaving slowly through space, on the highest
accessible ledge of a mountain, was the starlight on the strands of Galt's
hair. He stood looking, not at the valley below, but at the darkness of the
world beyond its walls. Dagny's hand rested on his shoulder, and the wind
blew her hair to blend with his. She knew why he had wanted to walk through
the mountains tonight and what he had stopped to consider. She knew what
words were his to speak and that she would be first to hear them.

They could not see the world beyond the mountains, there was only a void of
darkness and rock, but the darkness was hiding the ruins of a continent: the
roofless homes, the rusting tractors, the lightless streets, the abandoned
rail. But far in the distance, on the edge of the earth, a small flame was
waving in the wind, the defiantly stubborn flame of Wyatt's Torch, twisting,
being torn and regaining its hold, not to be uprooted or extinguished. It
seemed to be calling and waiting for the words John Galt was now to
pronounce.

"The road is cleared," said Galt. "We are going back to the world."

He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign
of
the dollar."

----
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