In a message dated 98-07-25 23:33:03 EDT, Damien Broderick wrote:
> >Transhumanists do not see mankind as a fallen angel, somehow divorced and
> >The> >of the 18th Century, a New Enlightenment reinvigorated by a deeper
> >transhumanist world view is a redemption of the optimism of the
> >Enlightenment
Don't be sorry. Thanks for reading so closely: If you got the wrong impression, anyone would. In that one particular instance, my intent in the use of the word "progress" was to convey the meaning "one thing after another" as in "the progress of events", but because of it's more powerful teleological connotation, the word has to go. (As I re-read this with your comment in mind, I don't know how I could have written this -- other than under the influence of an overabundance of coffee: Coupled with the phrase "leading edge", the teleological sense of "progress" seems the obvious interpretation.).
Nicholas, consider my offering as modified to read as follows:
Transhumanists do not see mankind as a fallen angel, somehow divorced and alienated from a romanticized "nature", but rather as merely one instance of the process of evolution's continuing action in the natural world, and thus as very much a part of nature..
Thanks, Damien.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<burchg@liddellsapp.com> Attorney ::: Director, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1 "Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience."