Re: FAQ: TRANSHUMANISM AND NATURE

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Sat, 18 Jul 1998 14:57:27 -0400

Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> Dan Clemmensen writes:
>
> > > > Are transhumanist technologies environmentally sound?
> > >
> > > If you define environment as current ecosystem, no.
> > >
> >
> > Transhumanist technologies have the potential to preserve
> > existing ecosystems. Reasonable non-transhuman extrapolations
> > of existing human culture have no chance of preserving the
> > current ecosystem.
>
> True, current development is not sustainable. Transhuman technologies
> _could_ preserve/rebuild virtually anything (and more), however, they
> can destroy a planetary ecosystem within minutes, if not seconds. So
> we cannot answer this question reliably, just now.
>

True, but not relevant. The orignal question makes the implicit assumption that our existing society can somehow preserve the environment. Unless we attack the assumption, we give away our strongest environmental argument.