In a message dated 99-07-16 17:40:23 EDT, Paul Hughes wrote:
> A few weeks back Anders or someone suggested a great idea of creating
> a personality test to determine where extropians and transhumanists of
> various
> ilk stood on a wide variety of philosophical and practical issues. One
thing
> that
> seems obvious to me is that in reality there is a wide variety of opinions
> on what
> transhumanism means to various people. As time goes on, this opinion
> variance
> continues to diversify and widen. I think the post-human future will
> probably be the
> equivalent of the cambrian explosion in terms of future diversity and
> evolutionary
> pathways. Wouldn't it be interesting to see what people most share your
> core
> ideals and ethics? Frankly, transhumanism is becoming increasingly too
> general
> and vague in describing how we each feel about the future. Perhaps its
time
> to
> subdivide transhumanism into various schools of thought?
>
> Your opinions are encouraged. Please feel free to submit your own ideas,
> questions, and philosophical divides you see. Here are some of the bigger
> variances I'm aware of. I'll be the first to admit that these variances
are
> not
> either/or but may be on a scale of 1-10, with some people falling into the
> middle.
I think this is a worthwhile project, although I think this is really more of an "opinion poll" than a "personality test". Perhaps we could use one of the free opinion poll services. I think your categories are about right, but think each one has three elements: What the responder thinks is best for humanity as a whole, what is most probable and what the responder prefers for herself personally. I agree with you that we're likely headed for the equivalent of a "Cambrian Explosion" of our own species, with a great diversity of developmental pathways being generated by the possibilities presented by transhuman technologies. If this is so, it WOULD be good to be able to know who's on a similar pathway.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"Civilization is protest against nature;
progress requires us to take control of evolution."
-- Thomas Huxley