Anders Sandberg [asa@nada.kth.se] wrote:
>Something that has worried me a bit is that there are socialist
>transhumanists, but they haven't managed to formulate how their views
>fit together with transhumanism to the same extent that libertarian
>transhumanists have done
I think that's pretty clear from the contradictory and inconsistent posts from the various socialists who've recently arrived on the list.
>(the libertarians of course claim this is
>because it is impossible).
Voluntary transhuman socialism is perfectly possible, for small groups in the short term; in fact I'd say it's not only possible and consistent with anarcho-capitalism, but in many cases may be the most effective way for small affinity groups to operate. Large-scale involuntary transhuman socialism is impossible, because it requires that some group take control of a society where any one individual can wipe out a large group which annoys it. Coercion is hard in a transhuman society, and transhuman tech is hard to build in a socialist society; the whole aim of socialism is to reduce the rate of change and create a static society.
Mark