From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sat Jan 04 2003 - 02:01:13 MST
Ron writes
> [Lee wrote]
> > It would be pretty crazy to suppose that
> > transhumanism or transhumanity could be
> > aligned with racism! I have no idea how
> > such a thought could enter anyone's head.
>
> Lee,
> Is it a matter of entry point? I was looking at the principles of
> Extropy. If one believed those principles and evolved to believing that
> practicing those principles would raise us to a higher level of humanity we
> might end up with a superman theory but not racist or anti any ethnic group.
That is correct. In fact, this is a difference between
"Extropy" and "Transhumanism" that I had wanted to point
out. It's currently not possible to be a racist and an
Extropian, because the term "Extropy" was invented by
a person to convey a certain concept. One of the principle
components of this concept explicitly moves beyond racist
thinking.
In philosophy, one might say that "Extropy" is a synthetic
concept and "transhuman" an analytic concept.
While I've admitted that I don't know what the WTA types
are up to and don't much care---even if many of them are
Extropians---I do know that no one will get away with
defining "transhuman" or "transhumanism". The term is
too analytic; it's simply too obvious what is the general
form of what is being conveyed. It's very obvious that
all sorts of people who we don't like will call themselves
transhuman.
> However if one started as a racist of some type one
> would evolve an entirely different type superman theory.
Yes, though it would have to have a powerful historical
component to be able to logically sustain racism, or,
what is equivalent, a terrific sense of ethnic pride.
Lee
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