-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Atkins <brian@posthuman.com>
>Who cares what "human" means? Why does that keep getting asked
>(as a reason not to do it) when people start talking about
>becoming transhuman? Too many Star Trek memes?
Lots of people care about it. Lots of people are very attached to being human. 'Normal' people (unlike us educated types) use words like 'natural' and 'unnatural' and 'good' and 'evil' and 'wierd' and 'inhuman'.
Why do you think there was the problem over cloning?
If you don't think about the opinions of the majority and try to massage them into the opinions you want them to have, you can get in very big trouble.
I have heard it suggested that if you had vastly improved technology, you'd still want to introduce it to the public slowly, so as not to get shut down.
I take it you know the metaphor of the boiling frog?
Samael