RE: The Politics of Transhumanism

From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Thu Jan 10 2002 - 15:07:15 MST


> > Similarly, talk of 'upgrading' people, or perfecting ones genes is
> > similarly scary to people. Instead, talk of a 'right to be healthy',
>
> Excellent choice of words, Mike! I am going to start using this.
>
> "I have a right to be healthy!"

There's some chance of memetic backfire with that one, though.
If the saying becomes popular, it might be interpreted to mean
that you /don't/ have the right to be /more/ than healthy. It's
the same old bill-of-rights problem: if you list them, they'll
think the list is exhaustive, even when the fine print says
otherwise.

I have a right to be /more/ than just healthy. I have a right
to choose my own path of self-improvement. If that means getting
20-10 adaptive vision, robotic implants, neural interfaces, and
anything else I want, then that's what it means.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
"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


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