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Author Topic:   Transhumanism vs. Natural Selection: Playing God in the post-Darwinian era?
dagon
Inactive Member


Message 31 of 33 (246225)
09-25-2005 4:06 AM
Reply to: Message 7 by robinrohan
06-14-2005 10:56 PM


The same
It is obvious transhumanism will be greeted with fear. I am a transhumanist so I don't agree with that. Apart from being a transhumanist I call myself a social transhumanist and a democratic transhumanist, the current leftist parts of the movement.
Transhumanism is a movement of optimism and enpowerment. It states that application of technology increases wealth and personal ability. That goes extremely well with kapitalism; in fact transhumanism has a good chance to repair many of the wrongs perpetuated by kapitalism.
The ability to repair and upgrade bodies, offered at market prices (and bought with state subsidy if needed) will allow less productive members of society to contribute. It ranges from giving the blind eyes to voluntarily increasing intelligence with appropriate means to make less blessed individuals into fully productive members of society.
But it doesn't end there. Transhumanism also states that it would be possible to add new attributes (giving certain people who want it eyes that can see in the dark), change the rules of the game and improve upon society itself (change the neurology of repeat offenders in a legally acceptable manner as to remove certain brain disorders so as to not make them repeat offenders) and finally - change the rules of the game altogether (provide nearly limitless life extension to all people: Google SENS and DeGrey).
This is the end of genetic selection. It then becomes the beginning of a wholly new type of selection; i.e. we use what works.
Parents can in all freedom select the genes for their children as to give them the best possible chances. People could change the genes they were born with. Or people born with whatever genes could just take whatever prosthetic devices to aquire qualities that just aren't possible with current terrestrial life (like brain computers).
I think it is EXTREMELY important that transhumanism develops in the most democratic society possible. One can easily understand that a transhuman future would look rather differently if it occurs in Europe/U.S. or in Stalinist Russia (or in Nazi Germany for that matter). You want the most democracy possible when it happens cause it is likely to magnify and existing corruption, differences in wealth/poverty, racial prejudice, envy etc. If transhuman technology and consumer options come around you'd damn make certain you improve the democracy of the U.S. for instance. I don't thing types like G.W. don't mix well with the liberties provided above.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 7 by robinrohan, posted 06-14-2005 10:56 PM robinrohan has not replied

  
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 32 of 33 (246258)
09-25-2005 8:48 AM
Reply to: Message 17 by uvscfan
07-10-2005 11:15 PM


Cognitive ability vs creativity in selection
uvscfan writes:
the impact it might have on the evolution of the species since the groups with the lowest IQ's are reproducing at a much higher rate than those with the highest IQ's.
All this shows is that {intelligence} is not a sexual selection feature or one that is consistently selected for across the population base.
We already knew this from observing the types of people that {teens\young adults} are attracted to: pop-stars are generally not known for their intelligence, and {scientists\intellectuals} do not (by and large) have groupies.
We also know that {beauty} is not specifically selected for, because experiments have shown that the most (judged) beautiful {faces\people} are computer composites that average the features of many people even whey they are not {beautiful} to begin with. What we call {beauty} then is nothing more than a template for {average}, a means of driving the population towards stasis in evolution. Also, movie stars are not particularly known for their intelligence, and {scientists\intellectuals} do not (by and large) have fan clubs.
What these {selection icons} have in common is {apparent creativity}.
Welcome to the fray, and enjoy.
This message has been edited by RAZD, 09*25*2005 08:50 AM

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 17 by uvscfan, posted 07-10-2005 11:15 PM uvscfan has not replied

  
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1404 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 33 of 33 (246262)
09-25-2005 9:01 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by dsv
06-12-2005 8:14 PM


Intelligent Design, coming soon to a needle near you?
Interesting topic and discussion, even if it is getting side-tracked a little by {intelligence\racism} issues.
What I see is an increasing trend to use intelligent design on ourselves -- real intelligent design, based on goals and full evaluation of alternatives, and the increasing possibility of making actual direct changes to genes.
And of course when this occurs (1) there will be an observable difference between the effects of design and what the "neo-paleyists" claim, and (2) the {all change is bad} crowd will be vocal in opposition.
For instance, there is talk of making viruses that will improve resistance to diseases or fix certain genetic errors (diabetes, sickle-cell, etc).
Enjoy.

we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by dsv, posted 06-12-2005 8:14 PM dsv has not replied

  
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