From: Emlyn O'regan (oregan.emlyn@healthsolve.com.au)
Date: Tue Oct 08 2002 - 21:34:54 MDT
> Okay, so let me ask you for your perception on a "big tent"
> approach to
> transhumanism (for I suppose it would be too much to expect
> "extropianism"
> to entertain a "come one, come all" invitation to, say, a
> "Cryonics Bash").
> I've been on this list for a couple of years, and I still
> don't understand
> why nanotechnology, longevity, cryonic preservation,
> singularity, and all
> the other issues typically discussed on this list wouldn't
> (or couldn't)
> appeal to all sorts of people besides libertarians. All
> those subjects
> interest me, and ... well, you know ...
>
> Olga
>
Me too. Libertarians seem to be noisy and can be wearisome to argue with -
simple answers to complex questions make for a nice debating platform (but
you wouldn't want to live there), and I think they attract people who like
to argue for the sake of argument.
It is my opinion that transhumanism requires individualism (it's based on
it), without requiring libertarianism. You can sensibly talk about social
welfare and individualism in the same sentence, and so by extension you can
talk about transhumanism in that context too.
One concession I'd make to libertarians is that, if there is going to be a
social welfare framework, there should be an opt-out mechanism for those who
want to eschew the costs and benefits. This doesn't exist for most people
today (opting out of any particular regime's influence is not possible for
many people), which is a bad thing. I don't have any good details on how
you'd implement such a proposal, off the top of my head, sorry.
Emlyn
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