Re: Defining Transhumanism

From: Natasha Vita More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Tue Oct 20 1998 - 06:28:06 MDT


At 10:19 AM 10/19/98 -0700, Robin wrote:

>Nick Bostrom suggested that he & I take public our private
>conversation about definitions of transhumanism. I proposed:
>
> Transhumanism is the idea that new technologies are likely
> to change the world so much in the next century or two that
> our descendants will in many ways no longer be "human."

This definition leaves out any set of values and transhumanism not not just
about technology.

Although I appreciate your definition of transhumanism, I thought that we
spent considerable time on this many months ago. At that time we went over
the original definition and discussed possibilities for wording. Nick was
active on this thread.

I'm pleased with both FM-2030's definition of transhumanism and Max More's
original definition of transhumanism which appears to be going into a
public dictionary. If WTA wants to have its own definition, this is fine,
as there will be many definitions of transhumanism according to many
different organizations. However, how many disparate definitions do we
have for humanism, and is reference given to the original definition?

I understand that as Editor of WTA's journal, you might feel that it is a
good idea to create a new definition, but I am not sure that this is
appropriate so early. Is there a better way to deal with this?

Natasha



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