Re: SENTISM

Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Sun, 23 Aug 1998 22:54:21 -0400 (EDT)

At 01:15 AM 8/24/98 +0200, Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> wrote:
>> Sentists, and some other transhumanism-like groups, appear to be
>> basically mystical: knowledge about the future can be achieved through
>> non-rational insight.
>>
>> Strictly speaking, it is transhumanists who are being non-rational, by
>> not acknowledging the nature of boosting. PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS. ALL BEINGS
>> ARE CAPABLE OF BEING BOOSTED BY MIXTURES OF APPLICABLE NEUROLOGICAL
>> MODIFICATION SYSTEMS,
>
>If I understand your reasoning correctly, you think transhumanists are
>non-rational for not discussing the possibility of uplifiting/boosting
>other entities, such as animals. Is this a correct interpretation?
>
>If so, then you are wrong, since these matters has been discussed on
>this list in the past. There was a long discussion about uplifting
>squids around a year ago, and there have been occasional bursts of
>thinking on the ethics of the process. Not to mention David Pearce's
>sketches in The Hedonic Imperative.

I have lots of the uplifting discussion as I was its instigator last time around.:)
Some of the participants regarded some of the proposals as immoral, which demonstrates that ethical questions are asked here. (Some might complain that they are asked too often.:) I think we should discuss more concrete strategies and applications of more near term technologies here.)

>But generally people are more interested in things that give *them* or
>their close ones a benefit. You might regard all entities as close
>ones, but others may have other priorities. This is still completely
>rational in the sense of using efficient means to reach one's goals.

I see nothing wrong (and assume Andres agrees???) with helping others out. My own strategy is to spread transhumanist/Extropian ideas as far and wide as is practical so that more people will become our allies in the battle to uplift ourselves.

Cheers!

Daniel Ust

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