Talk:Transhumanism

Content/citation dump from cleaned debate section

Giuseppe Vattino, a supporter of transhumanism elected as a member of Parliament in Italy, believes that, although transhumanism may make us less human, there are both positive and negative consequences. He believes that transhumanism will make people “less subject to the whims of nature, such as illness or climate extremes”.

Fukuyama points out that, while the concept of being able to do away with negative emotions is appealing in theory, if we did not have the emotion of aggression then "we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves".

Struck by a passage from Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's anarcho-primitivist manifesto (quoted in Kurzweil's 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines), computer scientist Bill Joy became a notable critic of emerging technologies. Joy's warning was seized upon by appropriate technology organizations such as the ETC Group. Related notions were also voiced by self-described neo-luddite Kalle Lasn, a culture jammer who co-authored a 2001 spoof of Donna Haraway's 1985 Cyborg Manifesto as a critique of the techno-utopianism he interpreted it as promoting. Lasn argues that high technology development should be completely relinquished since it inevitably serves corporate interests with devastating consequences on society and the environment. (looks to have been improperly classified as existential risk)

Some also argue that strong advocacy of a transhumanist approach to improving the human condition might divert attention and resources from social solutions. Sometimes, however, there are strong disagreements about the very principles involved, with divergent views on humanity, human nature and the morality of transhumanist aspirations.

Transhumanists, therefore, argue that parents have a moral responsibility called procreative beneficence to make use of these methods, if and when they are shown to be reasonably safe and effective, to have the healthiest children possible. They add that this responsibility is a moral judgment best left to individual conscience, rather than imposed by law, in all but extreme cases. In this context, the emphasis on freedom of choice is called procreative liberty.

Artist and filmmaker Tim Holmes sees a similar but subtler danger in the devaluation of the body by the progress of civilization itself, which he says encourages mechanical values of expediency, rather than body values of quality of life, leading us to ever more mechanical, anti-flesh solutions. In his TEDx talk "The Erotic Crisis", he warns against abandoning the hidden wisdom of the flesh, which cannot be digitally comprehended.

References

Olaf Stapledon

Last and First Men (and Starmaker, for that matter), while fictitious and androcentric, may be a relevant work to mention here, as the entirety of it is concerned with transhumanism and posthumanism (albeit from the perspective of a man in the 1930s). It also is a somewhat less disturbing and semi-psychopathic work that many others in the field, owing partially to it's (unusal for the genre) disregard for the pursuit of personal immortality.

How do you go about looking for a better source?

I ask because it says the following line on the main article needs a better source: "Another topic of transhumanist research is how to protect humanity against existential risks, such as nuclear war or asteroid collision."

Why is this source not adequate: Kirsch, Adam (June 20, 2020). "Looking Forward to the End of Humanity". Wall Street Journal. And how should a user look for a better one? FireInMe (talk) 21:14, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

The new logo

Why was the "Humanity Plus" logo changed? SWeinblatt (talk) 00:47, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Jesuitry

... DNA/genome stewardship by an institution analogous to the Jesuits' 400-year vigil ...

Vigil over what? —Tamfang (talk) 02:52, 25 June 2024 (UTC)