From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Dec 24 2001 - 17:16:08 MST
On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 11:45:07AM -0800, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> While I admire Eli's passion, as one of those he describes as "in
> total hard-takeoff denial", I see the transhumanist agenda a bit
> differently: rather than the exponential growth of technology being
> a wave that wipes away all the minor and irrelevant distinctions
> we present-day humans spend too much time bickering about, I see
> the rise of technology as expanding our abilities to create /real/
> diversity. Our present irrational concerns about race will be
> wiped out not because we will come together, but because we will
> diverge and speciate and migrate to the point where what are now
> perceived as "racial" differences will be of less magnitude than
> the individual differences we will be able to create. As we grow
> apart, it will be all the more important that we learn how to take
> advantage of diversity and comparative advantage so that the new
> races we become will continue to work effectively toward even
> greater diversity and creativity as we expand into the universe.
Well explained. I also think tolerance would be a prerequisite to even
get to this clading stage, because without it the technology is going to
be so controversial that we all get entangled in struggles over it and
between different clades-to-be that we do not get anywhere, at least not
in a good shape. Look at the stem cell debate, and think about the
reactions to even doing germline engineering on humans.
How to promote this tolerance? Exposing people to the idea that clading
and technological transformation is likely to occur will not itself do
it; if the genetic engineering debate is any guide it will only polarize
opinions. What matters is not facts, but values - we need to promote the
*value* of tolerance. One way is of course as Eli mentioned through
fiction, and most sf today has indeed extended the 'us' concept to all
of mindkind, be it humans, aliens, AI or posthumans. But sf is a rather
marginalized genre, we want/need to get more tolerance into the
mainstream. We are not alone in this, but we have a somewhat broader
perspective than most other tolerance promoters. That suggests that it
would be reasonable to team up with them in their activities, giving
them a mild exposure to a broader vision of tolerance than just
tolerance between races, religions or ethnicities. No need to convert
people, just to quietly extend tolerance on a broad front. The animal
rights movement has succeded admirably (even if I think much of it is
misguided too) in doing something similar with the concept of rights for
animals. Learn from their success, and use the uniqueness of
transhumanism to its best advantage.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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