SENTISM - gabgab

Avatar Polymorph (way@warehouse.net)
Sat, 29 Aug 1998 15:03:12 +1100

Spike Jones writes:

"good idea av, but doesnt go far enough. i propose a law to make it illegal for any animal to kill any other animal....... {8^)"

I will vote for it. You are quite right. That is not currently legally enforceable at some levels, as 'people' are often defined as humans.

However I am in favour of consensual killing being legal, as well as consensual self-inflicted harm, such as suicide.

While this may appear to be a jokey issue it is actually one that will be of some debate in the future.

Those Extropians who argue for immortality as a realistic concept but ignore debates about the biosphere as 'unrealistic and far-term' are only trammelling their potential growth in terms of understanding. The day that anyone markets a life-extension genetic therapy the world enters into these discussions that some consider irrelevant.

Doubtless there are many worlds which have gone through this process at this point of closeness to the Escalation. In fact, your actions over the next thirty years will not effect things hugely, in all probability, but they will constitute your contribution to the local vote on issues of inclusion. It is certainly best to regard human attitudes towards other species as inevitable on a Gaian level and not simply defined as negative. Their apparent selfishness can be looked upon as an anti-entropic spiking mechanism. Their origins in terms of social troops also explain much of their behaviour.

I believe part of the nature of the Escalation is a reflection of the eagerness of less complex species to shed the cycle of death and birth (and species) and reconstruct the biosphere on the basis of choice. As a Sentist I naturally believe in one sentient being, one vote (currently I define sentient being as a being with a neurological system).

The differences between mortality, immortality and amortality (chosen lifespan) are huge. Perhaps you should include a right to die in a transhumanist bill of rights?

Avatar Polymorph
29 after Armstrong