Engineering Values (was Re: Venus)

Omega (omega@pacific.net)
Mon, 27 Jan 1997 18:25:24 -0800


Robin Hanson wrote:

> I don't think you can sensibly talk about engineering your values.
> You can choose your strategies, heuristics, ways of framing
> situations, and you can remind yourself of things you value that
> aren't naturally highlighted in situations. But you want what you
> want. If you want to want something else, then how can it be that you
> wanted it in the first place?

This just begs the question of what "you" is, and what we hope to
accomplish with trans-humanism. Philosophers have been arguing the
first part for longer than we can imagine, and I don't feel we can
just blow this question off so easily. Trans-humanism ultimately
leads to shape-shifting (not to mention mind and emotion shifting
before that) at which time the question will be very personal and
"in our face" so to speak.

-- 
In the Ecstatic Service of Life -- Omega