From: "Adrian Tymes" <wingcat@pacbell.net>
> The past is like the future, true...but also different. Care must be
> taken not to misapply history's lessons.
History's foremost lesson is how to repeat history...
Commit it to memory so that we can do it all over again...
instead of forgetting it and trying something that hasn't been done.
It is because they _refuse_ to forget the past that the combatants of the
Middle East continue their stupid holy wars.
From: "Colin Hales" <colin@versalog.com.au>
> The focus is on a view to the past as the guide for the future and that the
> "classical human condition" is a given and an end point. Not repeating the
> mistakes of the past is obviously sensible but the tendered approach looks
> Luddite in the final analysis.
Not repeating the mistakes of the past requires creating new solutions, and
that's what makes transhumanism different from humanism: The former seeks new
solutions which are not tethered to the past. What we should remember from
history is that the mistakes of the past were committed by people who were
steeped in history, and who reacted to history in the misguided belief that
they could correct history. People go on repeating history because they refuse
to try something new.
> The Author(s) seem intimidated by extropians or the ideas thereof. They
> don't realise that: if what is on offer makes sense it'll be leapt upon by
> the extropian and the leaper will remain extropian enriched by a new meme. I
> don't think they get it. Or is it me who's missed something? I'm new to this
> after all.
You've summarized it well. Humanism has no room for transhumanism, but
transhumanists can learn from humanism (what little it has to offer, anyway)
and adapt it to the more energetic, creative, excellent, and practical
strategies of transhumanism.
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:11 MDT