From: Brian Phillips (deepbluehalo@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Jan 15 2002 - 16:14:04 MST
At 01:11 PM 1/14/02 +0000, Fabio wrote:
> a nazist/communist/racist/etc could just adopt that
>central meme and discard the rest (including the word "transhumanism"
>itself) without a second thought.
I've never read them, but I gather that sf writer Stephen Stirling's series
of novel about South African Nazi racist supermen, the Draka, does
something like this. And one of Jerry Pournelle's spin-off series
glorifying combat apparently has the gene-engineered Sauron supermen who
luckily get defeated by the brave free normals (yeah, right). If anyone's
read these books, it might be interesting to hear how they fit into this
discussion.
Damien Broderick>>
The Draka are best described as Afrikans/Revolutionary-Loyalist/
Prussian-Mercenary/Confederate-Losers descendants who
through a series of remarkable and (admittedly unlikely events)
come to dominate an industrialized Africa run as an apartheid-slave
state.
The Draka are not described as "transhumanist"... they are described
as "posthumans". Perhaps the most accurate descriptor would
be extreme eugenicists. Until they get gene-engineering. Then they
turn the next generation of themselves into a relatively uniform Human
2.0 (Overlord Model). Not an "individualist" posthuman... but
a "posthuman caste" model.
Lovely stories.
Much of my take on what a largely organic posthuman entity would
be like is the most romantic least scary bits of Draka fiction.
Sans pheremone-wired slave-primates who look like attractive
homo sapiens of course.
Very efficent, very murderous monkeys.
One thing I would point out is that the Draka (and their Adversaries,
the noble Yankees/Samthracians) are not dabbling in "transapience".
The Draka are biologically immortal, but are wired to a biological
parasite role. The Samothracians (who are the cybernetic homo
normals) reject lifespan extension, and indeed, base their culture
around rejecting the "temptation of the posthuman, we live and
die as humans". Beyond a few kudos like universal "high-human
normal" IQ, photographic memory and some sensory modes..
the brains are basically human-class. Which is unforgiveable.
regards,
Brian
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