Re: MORALITY: making tradeoffs (was: a topic we will not discuss)

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Sep 17 2001 - 14:41:32 MDT


On Mon, Sep 17, 2001 at 10:24:34AM -0700, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> Anders asked me:
> > "Robert, what do you consider human life and transhumanism to
> > be about?"
>
> I consider human life to be first about "survival". If you can't
> manage that, then transhumanism is a moot point.

Ok, that is the basis of the hierarchy of needs. It can be argued that
this would also imply a right to life for humans, which means that it is
wrong to prevent the survival of other people.

However, I think you also have ideas about life beyond mere survival,
don't you? I would say transhumanism is a project that deals even more
with the higher needs than survival. We want to ensure our survival, but
also enhance the higher order needs such as self actualization.

> I think I'm going to sit back and spend some time reflecting
> on some of the points that have been made to see if I can
> effectively integrate them.

Good idea! (one could only wish that more people had this kind of
reaction to debates like this)

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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