Re: PHI: for genetic tech

Carol Tilley (tilley@worldnet.att.net)
Wed, 18 Aug 1999 13:40:14 -0700

> >But have you thought that the self-aware human might be the gestational
> >equivalent of an ultraembryo from the perspective of an adult ultrahuman?
>
> I can't think of any examples of what you are talking about. Perhaps you
> can expand a little? Give me an example or two.

An anti-extropian example would be death. Select your ultrahuman recipient facsimile based on whatever religious parameters meet your fancy. An extropian example requires more groundwork. Perhaps the progression of identity (genetic, bodily, spiritual and social identity) is used by the natural selection process to maximize a favorable outcome when the pre-birth organism _jumps_ to the post-birth organism. At what point in the development of the adult human would you choose for uploading? Childhood might be considered an embryonic stage, pre-adolescence an early fetal stage reforming the stimulus/pain response, adolescence equivalent to the self-aware fetus of ~ 20 weeks. That leaves us with viability at ~ 22-24 weeks, the age of legal adulthood. Then there is fine-tuning the creature which takes us to week 40 (lift-off). So, uploading of identity would be another example in which the self-aware human is simply a gestational object.

> >And you are right, of course. It isn't missing anything.
> Actually humans have already looked into the future and pictured what it
> will be like. If not would the extropian society exist?
> So we would be missing out. We already know about it.

Another glass ceiling, perhaps, extropians altering the membrane and their identity to better enable osmosis to occur?

But this thread is frayed and my logic flawed. Only "Oprah" can save me now!

C. Tilley