Re: >H gender apartheid and transhumanists

Phil Goetz (goetz@zoesis.com)
Tue, 17 Nov 1998 11:22:12 -0500 (EST)

> Transhuman Mailing List
>
> Phil Goetz wrote:
> >I think that anyone who regarded themselves as a transhuman would
> >necessarily be a bigot, since they would regard themselves as greater than
> >human. So they would be racially bigoted against humans.
> >
> >If someone who regards themselves as transhuman has altered genes, then
> they
> >are calling themselves superior on the basis of their genes. It is a short
> >hop from there to making judgements about different human races on the
> basis
> >of their genes. If transhumans are not so bigoted, I would guess it will
> be
> >more a matter of disinterest than of principle.
> >
> Hell, some of us don't need any cotton-picking genetic engineering to feel a
> little superior. But that in itself doesn't make you a bigot in my book.
> After all, I think I have a superior moral system to a god-believer, but I
> don't think that makes me a religious (or anti-religious) bigot. As long as
> my opinions are rational and I don't seek to deny rights to any other person
> based upon their ethnic/religious status, who cares what my feelings
> regarding our relative abilities are?

Today, if someone goes out and surveys the literature, and gathers a lot of data, then publishes a book arguing on the basis of that data that, say, Asians are generally all-around smarter than Caucasians, those people are called racists. Rationality is irrelevant to the label.

The only way not to be a racist today is to say that race and genetics makes no difference in behavior or intelligence or strength. Someone who regards themselves as genetically transhuman has taken the critical step of acknowledging that genetics makes a difference.

I am not saying that the term "racist" is being applied incorrectly. I think it is correct. Someone who believes there are or can be significant observable behavioral differences correlated with race is a racist. And anyone who considered themselves transhuman would necessarily believe that. Once you believe that, it would be inconsistent not to consider that there might be behavioral differences between other human races, and once you consider that, you are a racist at heart.

Phil