Re: Transhumanist Principles 2.1

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Mon, 30 Mar 1998 16:52:23 -0800 (PST)


> I would actually think that the relation to politics should
> be still farther from neutral.
>
> Religious fundamentalism, conservatism, or any strong restrictions
> on personal, cultural, and technological development do not
> seem to support any kind of transhumanism.
> There are very few political regimes that may support any kind of
> open-ended, unlimited growth. Among them, a transhumanist would
> freely choose; all others, one should oppose or flee.

I am a religious fundamentalist and transhuman. My religion
happens to be atheist/libertarian/rationalist, but I have
committed my life to it with the same fervor as any Christian
fundamentalist to eirs, in that it would take some extraordinary
circumstances I can't imagine to change my commitment.

It would be hypocritical of me to think that my commitment to
non-violent moral standards, and even my commitent to standards
of epistemology and evidence for knowledge of the physical world,
is any different in character from eirs. Indeed, I may admire
eir commitment even while I ridicule the beliefs themselves.

Saying that one is "neutral" on issues of politics or morals is
at best meaningless, at worst dishonest. There's no such thing
as neutrality or objectivity, only varying levels of commitment,
just as there is no such thing as unbiased reporting of political
issues. The pretense of objectivity does more harm to rational
discourse than any extremist position.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC