On 26 Apr 2001, James J. Hughes wrote:
>Reasons why transhumanists need to open up to democratic thought include:
>
>A. Defending transhumanist technologies, and the right to use them, can only
>be achieved by engaging in the political process, and not by diddling around
>with anti-political abstractions like Privately Produced Law ...
PPL isn't anti-political, but it is clearly a long-term political goal.
You could reasonable argue that focusing on long-term large political
changes distracts from shorter term smaller accomplishments. But some focus
on longer-term larger changes, political and otherwise, is pretty central
to the whole idea of transhumanism.
>C. Anarcho-capitalism is bad social science. All markets require social
>construction, and the rule of law. Accepting that, one slowly has to
>acknowledge the utility of democratic institutions, although dog knows they
>can and should be made more efficient, far-sighted and accountable. ...
I'm not really an anarcho-capitalist anymore, nor a libertarian, but I
think this criticism is misplaced. Anarcho-capitalism is consistent with
both social construction and a rule of law. The question is *how* law
and society are to be constructed. Acknowledging that democratic institutions
have utility is not the same as concluding that they are the best possible
form of government.
I applaud attempts to think more fundamentally about alternative forms of
government, without assuming that some form of democracy must be the best
possible form.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 10:00:01 MDT