From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Jul 06 1998 - 11:57:05 MDT
den Otter <neosapient@geocities.com> writes:
> --Image may be important, but ultimately what counts is survival
> and flourishing. The actual goals should not be compromised too
> much for PR reasons
No, of course not. But there have never been any competition between
practical work or PR. In fact, practical work is great PR if handled
well ("Don't whine about Y2K, this is how you can protect yourself if
things go badly!"; "We have implemented a backlink system for critical
analysis to make our own discussions more rational"; "I use these
simple methods to live longer and feel healthier" etc.). In fact, one
of the most common criticisms against transhumanism is that it is just
talk, so practical work is good from a PR point of view. Just don't
call it "survivalism" or something that will bring bad associations.
> --Right now, there are hardly any projects (that I'm aware of) that
> deal with the practical side of facing the future. Ideally, there
> would be a transhuman network that could at least partially survive
> a collapse of society. I know, it sounds paranoid, but when your
> goal is immortality, and you live on earth, you *better* be "paranoid".
> Also a >H network of this kind would have many useful spinoffs such
> as suspension facilities and community forming. One thing that would
> certainly be needed is a radio network: in case of some disaster
> the net would be one of the first things to go.
An interesting idea. Of course, implementing something like this with
a reasonable chance to survive global disruptions is extremely hard
and would require a lot of dedicated work for everyone involved. But
it might be interesting to figure out how to create a worldwide
transhuman cooperative network to help members from local trouble
(like saving you if the banks burst or us swedes once our government
goes completely crazy :-), that is likely easier and much more needed.
> --Apart from major disasters etc, there are the problems of everyday
> life. Since money can buy you just about anything, including health,
> hapiness and life extension, it should be a major point on the
> transhuman agenda. Wealth is essential for survival and flourishing.
This is where I think the transhuman business network idea we
discussed on TV98 briefly would come in handy as a start, as well as
helping each other learn the necessary skills to become wealthy. At
our summercamp, for example, Valdemar Ingdahl will lecture about
reaching economic independence, which seems to be a good start.
> --If you want a "clean" image *and* the practical "survivalist" stuff,
> you need to create separate organizations. There are already several
> educational organizations (WTA, ExI, WFS etc) but none that deal
> specifically with the practical side of transhumanism: how can we
> maximalize our chances to survive and flourish in the twilight of
> humanity and beyond? Such an organization would most likely be
> low-profile, since others do the message-spreading, and would
> mostly draw members from within the transhuman community. Touchy
> but practical (or just interesting) issues would be handled on
> a separate list.
I think you have the mistaken impression that I think all practical
work to further transhumanist goals will be bad for PR. Not at all -
it will likely be a great PR boon if handled well. But what I worry
about is formulating it in the wrong way, making it look like
something nasty, secretive or dangerous. That was why I attacked the
word "survivalism" - it is tainted and will be misunderstood. The same
goes for many other practical activities, some need to be handled very
carefully (for example, research into cognition enhancing drugs is
best done in a very dry and scientific way, otherwise people will link
it to narcotics. Once they are accepted scientifically, things can
change).
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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