> The problem I see with this notion of metaorganism and their rights
> is that it winds up being in practice, the "right" of the leaders of
> existing institutions to impose their will on other people. Thus, I
> think the case for metaorganisms has not been truly made. It is an
> analogy which is easily abused, and the abuse of it plays into the
> hands of existing and would be elites.
A leader-centered metaorganism is in some sense a huge exoself that
extends the leader and could be considered a transhuman technology if
it didn't involve the use of less-than-free humans as
components. Imagine having something equivalent to a major corporation
as an integral part of yourself, implementing your will and augmenting
your capabilities!
However, many organisations are not strongly under control of their
human leaders, but are more of a collective system. Usually they do
not become collective systems independent of leaders immediately, but
slowly grow in this direction as they age. I would say "true"
metaorganisms that have their own behavior independent of humans today
tend to be very old and large, and it might be that they have not yet
fully emerged.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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