The FAQ is completed!

Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Sat, 20 Feb 1999 16:29:11 +0000

I've been in the lurking mode because I have been very busy with my PhD and other things recently, but now it's finally time to present 'The Transhumanist FAQ'.

The project became much bigger than originally intended. The present version is more than 15,000 words. I have tried to give substantial answers that get to the core of the matter, while at the same time being as concise as possible.

Many of the questions are really objections. Some of the objections rest on misunderstandings, and they should meet with a vigorous response. But others point out genuine problems, and there I think the right approach is not to try to smooth over the difficulties or wriggle out of the attack through clever rhetoric. Rather, transhumanism will grow to the extent it is able to acknowledge these problems and take them into account. If our opponents have a good point, let's incorporate that into out thinking and be grateful that they pointed it out to us -- then we will have one vulnerable spot less in future encounters.

The FAQ would not have been possible without the input from many people. At least 50 persons have contributed and I'm grateful to all of you. Two persons must be especially mentioned: Kathryn Aegis, who provided painstaking editorial help as well as valuable advise and contributions to the content, and Anders Sandberg, who gave detailed feedback, wrote some of the answers, and provided ideas for many of them.

The FAQ will be continuously updated and modified. Especially the initial round of feedback now might well necessitate substantial revisions.

I suggest that we use critlink for comments on particular points of substance and style, whereas more general comments can be made to the lists.

The home of the FAQ is:

http://www.transhumanist.org

If you want to look at it with critlink, you go to: http://www.crit.org/http://www.transhumanist.org

Now I will just have to sit back and await your judgement.

Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method London School of Economics