> I realize that to many of you, extropian ideals are philosophical. Well,
> fair enough, but I consider myself a scientist, and I feel that there's no
> room for pretention in science.
No, but one should carefully distinguish science from art (although I'm
myself as a scientist quite interested in depicting scientific results as
art). Without the poetic exaggerations, art would not be as inspiring, and
art is necessary to create a rich and dynamic culture worth living in,
while science provides the understanding and technology needed to make it
run.
> I think that the images are kingdom biased! What about plants? eh?
> Paramecium have a right to exist!! Don't they? .. speciesist ...
You're just talking about carbon based lifeforms - thats carbon
chauvinism! Let's not forget inanimate matter or life based on other
media, like knots of vortex-lines in the superfluid mantle of neutron
stars or beings in the fourier transform of our universe :-)
See David Pearce's _The Hedonic Imperative_ (on the net) for some
interesting ethical and neurological ideas about how to enhance the
quality of life for other kingdoms (at least those with nervous systems).
Uplifting is an interesting subject, although I'm not sure a cat would
want to become a trans-cat if given the chance (let's try it though!).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y