From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Sun Jul 26 1998 - 05:55:56 MDT
In a message dated 98-07-25 23:33:03 EDT, Damien Broderick wrote:
> >Transhumanists do not see mankind as a fallen angel, somehow divorced and
> >alienated from a romanticized "nature", but rather as merely the current
> >leading edge of a process of progressive evolution in the natural world.
> >The
> >transhumanist world view is a redemption of the optimism of the
> >Enlightenment
> >of the 18th Century, a New Enlightenment reinvigorated by a deeper
> >understanding of consciousness as an integral part of natural evolution.
>
> This flies in the face of almost every accepted technical understanding of
> evolution. `Progressive evolution' is *exactly* the prime instance of `a
> romanticized "nature" ', I'd argue. It sounds more like Theosophy than
> science. (Sorry.)
Don't be sorry. Thanks for reading so closely: If you got the wrong
impression, anyone would. In that one particular instance, my intent in the
use of the word "progress" was to convey the meaning "one thing after another"
as in "the progress of events", but because of it's more powerful teleological
connotation, the word has to go. (As I re-read this with your comment in
mind, I don't know how I could have written this -- other than under the
influence of an overabundance of coffee: Coupled with the phrase "leading
edge", the teleological sense of "progress" seems the obvious
interpretation.).
Nicholas, consider my offering as modified to read as follows:
Transhumanists do not see mankind as a fallen angel, somehow divorced and
alienated from a romanticized "nature", but rather as merely one instance of
the process of evolution's continuing action in the natural world, and thus
as
very much a part of nature..
Thanks, Damien.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<burchg@liddellsapp.com>
Attorney ::: Director, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must
be driven into practice with courageous impatience."
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