SENTISM

Avatar Polymorph (way@warehouse.net)
Mon, 24 Aug 1998 08:25:03 +1100

Anders Sandberg writes:
Sentists, and some other transhumanism-like groups, appear to be basically mystical: knowledge about the future can be achieved through non-rational insight.

Strictly speaking, it is transhumanists who are being non-rational, by not acknowledging the nature of boosting. PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS. ALL BEINGS ARE CAPABLE OF BEING BOOSTED BY MIXTURES OF APPLICABLE NEUROLOGICAL MODIFICATION SYSTEMS, FOR EXAMPLE DNA COMPUTERS, DENDRIMER POLYMER DNA, INTRA-CELLULAR NANOTECHNOLOGY AND CONSTRUCTED NON-'ORGANIC' NEURAL CIRCUITRY. Transhumanists fail to focus on this issue, despite being more logical than most human beings currently around... why? Politically, one has to say it has something to do with the peculiar American historical condition, the 50 million Americans who live in wretched poverty and the fact that traditionally they have appropriated other people's lands by force (like most societies, including Australia). I can only hypothesize that they see physical space as limited - and possibly virtual space as well - and therefore wish to scramble to the top of some hypothesized 'heap' before the rest. This partially explains their lack of spiritual or MORAL discussion or ETHICAL discussion regarding various issues, although extropian means growth-orientated and positivistic to me. Only for everyone. AP
29 after Armstrong