Re: PHIL: Good question

From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 20:17:39 MDT

  • Next message: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky: "Re: PHIL: Good question"

    --- Keith Elis <hagbard@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
    > In the end, the best response I could muster to this
    > question was to
    > bring it back to the perennial issue of starting
    > points and assumptions.
    > If one values rational thinking alone, then perhaps
    > another's
    > transhumanist thinking does differ in certain
    > respects. Only very rare
    > people can truthfully say they value rational
    > thinking and nothing else.
    > When other values are present, one's thinking may
    > very well vary from
    > the rational baseline. But this answer doesn't seem
    > good enough to me.

    Start with this as a base. Add in differing ways of
    finding out information, such that the data that the
    transhumanist uses to make decisions is different from
    the data that most people use. The data is still
    valid
    and correct; it is just that most people are
    socialized to turn blind eyes to the realities of the
    ongoing improvements we are now experiencing, instead
    making the assumption that life in the future will be
    almost identical to life today. From some points of
    view, it will be; from others, it won't. Also, for
    the
    more Luddist people, add in evidence that - since it
    shocks and scares no one - rarely makes it into the
    media, that the majority of new technology ventures
    can
    and do safely achieve something like the improvements
    they are designed for.

    Different values. Different data. Same rationality.
    Different conclusions. And, to be frank,
    transhumanist
    values are steadily growing more mainstream; it may
    well already be the case that the average rationalist
    and the average transhumanist *don't* disagree on some
    key issues, like whether it is possible and desirable
    for people to live longer, better lives (by almost any
    measure of "better") than their ancestors.



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