From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Fri Sep 10 1999 - 13:51:53 MDT
From: Bryan Moss <bryan.moss@dial.pipex.com>
>As funny as this sounds, why is it any
>different from 'curing' homosexuality or skin colour?
The difference lies in superficial variables. An identical principle
applies: The principle of emotional inertia.
Blind people want to stay blind, because gaining vision may mean losing
some old friends, and the ties that bind. Homosexuals, concerned that former
lovers may see switching sexual orientation as betrayal, prefer to stay the
same. Similarly, unenlightened brains fear that they would lose the familiar
comfort of their habitual thinking if they enter choiceless awareness.
Experience justifies all these concerns, because personal transformation
often does entail losing contact with old friends and familiar places.
As for skin colour, well let's not get carried away, but...
"Michael Jackson began as a poor black boy, and ended up as a rich white
woman."
--Jay Leno
Jackson probably made some enemies by doing that. Bionic and/or symbiotic
humans will probably experience similar difficulties. I think they call it
envy, jealousy, or schradenfraude (on the part of those left behind), and
nostalgia, sentimentality, or remorse (on the part of those who change).
EOM
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