From: Bernard Hughes (bjhughes@istar.ca)
Date: Fri Oct 23 1998 - 16:16:44 MDT
Kathryn Aegis wrote:
> By the year 3000, it goes almost without saying that most humans will
> have the means and opportunity to evolve to the transhuman stage. My
> question--will we have seen the first posthuman(s) by then? How many?
> In what form?
If transhumanism is doable, I think it will be done by then. As to how many
there will be, its easier to speculate on how many humans will be left. Why
would someone not take advantage of the transhuman possibility? Religious
reasons maybe, but that has to hold through many generations. Or people who
choose to remain human in all but lifespan. Or people coerced by some
powerful entity who wants to keep a pure human breeding stock.
If we have full control over both the shape of our bodies and our minds, I
expect the concept of "individual" to be pretty murky by then. So counting
them gets pretty dicey. I expect shifting coalitions of entities and
subentities with common histories and purpose, but a rather relaxed sense of
self. I would like to split off into a number of variations, some of whom
may merge again later to create a common history. Other aspects of me may
merge with other aspects of other people (and AI's) to form a kind of "mind
children".
Staying human for 1000 years doesn't appeal to me. Does it to anyone else?
Bernard
-- Bernard J Hughes bernard@timedancer.com Timedancer Systems http://www.timedancer.com -- Creative Laziness at its best --
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