I've thought long and hard about Greg Burch's responses to my e-mails on
this subject. I've refrained from responding so far because I don't want to
clutter the list with a simple expression of agreement. However, Greg has
produced two excellent posts.
He concluded his most recent post
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I do believe that this suffering can be ameliorated, and I happen to think
that the technological advances we as transhumanists advocate will help to
do so greatly. I also think that application of extropian values of
openness and toleration, based on the intrinsic value of the individual as
the prime locus of moral rights and duties is the ONLY solution to the
social and political aspects of these problems.
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I certainly think that the values of openness and tolerance are enormously
important. The trouble is that these values are so often not being applied
by others. *We* can apply them all we like in our personal lives, and it has
a minimal impact on all this suffering and dislocation in the world.
Tanshuman technologies alone won't fix the problem. I urge everyone to read
Greg Egan's story "Yeyuka".
I don't have the solution but I do think it helps if we moderate our
transhumanist views by always thinking and writing out of an awareness of
what I was alluding to and what Greg has described. Otherwise, I don't see
how we can either be part of the solution or be intellectually credible in
the wider community.
Sometimes I almost despair. The events of the past week certainly make me
feel helpless and frustrated.
As I've said before, I *don't* support such ideas as reparations, though I
wonder where we would move in having something specific and constructive to
say about the same problems if we were motivated by a depth of compassion
together with our transhumanist philosophies.
As it happens, I do have some specific views in the context of local debates
in my own country. These views put me somewhere in the political centre in
the debates, as it turns out. For example, I do not believe in Aboriginal
"self determination" but I do support the idea of a formal government
apology to the stolen generations, based on my view that an apology does
*not* mean you have to feel guilt - people seriously contributing to the
debate have moved beyond that simplistic and impatient argument, as I argued
at length in an earlier post.
I don't presume to tell people from other countries what is best for them.
However, linking with some of the stuff Waldemar has been saying, if we are
going to be transhumanist public intellectuals we cannot simply be
dismissive of what is on the minds of the rest of the intellectual
community - that is so, even being pragmatic and leaving aside the sorrow in
our hearts at human suffering and the ideology-driven responses of left-wing
and right-wing fools.
Sadly
Russell
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