Holmbo Posted August 30, 2019 Share Posted August 30, 2019 I've seen several people on this forum describe themselves as transhumanist. I'm curious about this philosophy /viewpoint. For those of you who subscribe to it, do you apply it in your daily life or is it more of a general view about humanity as a whole? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueKumul Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 The basic idea is that humanity/mankind is nature's first experiment, and it should be improved. We have a lot of problems: disability, ageing, excessive self-regard. Transhumanists want to solve them by means of genetic engineering, and perhaps other biotechnologies like implanting nanobots in the brain. This is not an attempt to debunk inclusivity. We should be nice to deaf people, but if these people had a chance to experience the world of sound, I bet they would. It's simply curiosity. In the same way, transhumanists are curious about the world of concepts available at IQ 1000. Extropianism is more general concept that an entity's moral value boils down to extropy, or the amount of information that can be accumulated about it. We find a person more valuable than a stone, because a person is simply more interesting. Another way to state extropianism is that moral action is constructive action, and evil is destructiveness. Extropianism logically leads to transhumanism - we have duty to make ourselves and the world even more interesting. It also fits classical ideas about morality surprisingly well. Death is bad because it leads to loss of information accumulated in our brains. Hooliganism and vandalism are bad because they lead to loss of high-extropy material objects. On the other hand, personal relationships like friendship are good because they enrich the minds involved with new information. Transhumanism is a general view about humanity, but extropianism can be applied to daily life as well. I am above all an extropian, and then secondarily a transhumanist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmbo Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 @Blazkovitz thanks for the explanation. Does it have any application for everyday life and the choices one makes there? It seems like the potential for genetic engineering is pretty limited for most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueKumul Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 16 hours ago, Holmbo said: @Blazkovitz thanks for the explanation. Does it have any application for everyday life and the choices one makes there? It seems like the potential for genetic engineering is pretty limited for most. As I explained, transhumanism sadly cannot be applied in the world of 2019, but extropianism can. The best we can do is invest our money in research to bring on the transhumanist era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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