(Thanks for posting this James.)
Thank you Nick for your efforts in presenting our views to the public and
congratulations on creating the format for us and for helping to spread our
ideas. I look forward to seeing the completed program!
Natasha
At 11:16 PM 3/6/00 +0100, you wrote:
>All,
>
>BBC TV screened it's program "Heart of the matter" at 11:50PM GMT on
>Sunday. Was pure luck I even found out, happened to spot it in the TV
>guide by sheer luck!
>
>The first half of this program contained a section on life extension
>delivered by Nick Bostrom of the WTA, and contained interviews with Max
>More and Natasha Vita More. After that, they had a discussion with Nick
>himself, along with a Neurologist (I think), an environmentalist, and of
>course a theologian (there was another guy, can't remember what he did, one
>of the sciences I think).
>
>I found the host to be reasonably fair, and Nick did a fine job. However,
>I get the feeling the environmentalist guy and the theologian missed the
>plot. She was going on about needing death and old age in order to "value"
>youth and such. The usual arguments about missing friends, boredom etc.
>were brought out... Also the idea of "making space" for the next
>generation was raised. When Nick responded on that issue they didn't seem
>to have much of a response, and the discussion moved on...
>
>The Env. guy seemed to be standard scare monger stuff, even appealing
>directly to the camera at one point to press his message across. He also
>brought up the overpopulation argument, to which Nick responded with the
>facts about population decline in the west. To the Env. guy's credit, he
>did bring up the point about inequality in the distribution of the benefits
>of technology in the developing world. Not sure what that has to do with
>us striving to become better than we are though:) His main objection was
>"finite resources", and that he felt living for an extended length of time
>would be some kind of additional drain on the planet.
>
>The neurologist to be fair to her was fairly level headed, even bringing up
>the idea of 0-4C body freezing in order to live a "punctuated" extended
>life, ala Benjamin Franklin I guess. It seemed obvious that none of them
>had any previous exposure to TransH/Extropian ideas. The other scientist
>guy seemed cautious but optimistic about the future. Both of the science
>orientated people seemed the most level-headed IMO.
>
>Unfortunately I felt that it was too short a time, and that given longer
>Nick would have had more opportunity to shine, in between the
>'responsibility to die for our children' diatribes.... I'm sure he could
>have easily showed them the dead ends in their ways of thinking, but I
>suppose it's at least some exposure for our ideals. Maybe it'll get some
>people investigating.
>
>Anyways, that's my take on it. Would like to say well done to Nick for an
>excellent overview and for his composed stance in the debate!
>
>Regards,
>
>
>James.....
>
>
>
>
> J & J Corbally ~ Eire
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Natasha Vita-More: http://www.natasha.cc
To Order the book: Create/Recreate: The 3rd Millennial Culture
http://www.natasha.cc/books.htm
Transhumanist Arts Centre: http://www.extropic-art.com
Transhuman Culture InfoMark: http://www.transhuman.org
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:04:40 MDT