From: Hubert Mania (mania@welfen-netz.com)
Date: Sat Jun 12 1999 - 11:28:23 MDT
In the thread about a new transhumanist etymology Andrew Hennessey wrote :
>Adolf Hitler then adopted modern Theosophy and early Neitzsche to
>supplement his own ideas on Social engineering and 'Overmen'
>The 20th century in particular has a long bloody history of wanting to
>breed the right people.
>Any definition of Transhumanism should distance itself from comparisons
with
>the Human Race - in my opinion.
And Spudboy100 found out that :
>The Ubermann was the individual who could
>withstand the knowledge of life's "meaninglessness" and still find joy in
>it. Locked into that Eternal Return, that is. Count me out please!
Nietzsche said, God is dead, the Übermensch shall live. He
is the sole purpose of the Earth. Those superior humans who have higher
aspirations must transcend their nature and "have to perish". Maybe this
Nietzschean qoute could function as an ancestorial reference in a preamble
to the future "Singularitarian Principles". But for all those who
are not willing to be replaced by postsingularitarian AIs and SIs, for all
those who share a different view of the posthuman development, Nietzsche`s
antidemocratic, antifeminist and elitist thinking doesn`t seem to be an
appropiate source to get inspirations from.
When I first visited the transhuman mailing lists and found out that
Nietzsche`s "Zarathustra" belonged to the favourite books of many
transhumanists, I was puzzled. Though of course all Nietzsche experts agree
that he was a superb author, I must strongly object to this opinion. Maybe
the English translation of Zarathustra does not display this awkward
antiquated language of the German original with the romanticizing fairy tale
view and use of animals to show ...what the hell . . . he probably didn`t
know it himself. When you are grown up in Germany and read the original in
1999 with only the tiniest amount of transhumanist aesthetics and style in
the back of your mind, you cannot continue reading without being annoyed by
the sentimental language and the ridiculous use of analogies to picture his
utterly confused emotions and his fatalistic world view.
Okay, this is my private opinion on Nietzsche`s Zarathustra. I do understand
the continuous search for transhuman ancestors in history, but I think
Nietzsche should be counted out in this respect. The announcement of God`s
death might have been a revolutionary act in 19th century Germany but his
philosophy of the eternal return of the same is deeply rooted in
Schopenhauer`s pessimistic approach to life and is IMHO not at all suited to
be a transhumanis precursor.
Cheers
Hubert
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