Part one, part two, part three, part four.
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April 21, 2010 at 8:05 pm |
Interesting debate,
I think transhumanism is the domain of “white guys” for the same reason that literature is “white guy” territory, they “started” it (given their own highly specific definition of what constitutes literature/transhumanism.)
I don’t think that wanting to live forever and have robot slaves is a particularly “western” preoccupation.
The problem with transhumanist/technoprogressive ideas is not so much that they are impossible, but that we lack the will or ability to develop the infrastructure necessary to implement such ideas in the near future.
We could have working and profitable space stations back in the 70′s; but we don’t. There are reasonable lifestyle changes to prevent cancer/syndrome X; but we don’t.
I think Dale criticizes the theoretical nature of transhumanism; if you look at what people in the 19th century thought the 20th and 21st would be like (and tried to create in some respects,) some ideas are completely off the wall, some are very close to reality.
April 26, 2010 at 5:12 am |
I didn’t find that Dale person interesting at all. His comments were a sort of group-Bulverism.
May 12, 2010 at 6:28 am |
I agree with TGGP. I wouldn’t even normally bother talking with someone like that. He was impolite, for one thing. For another thing, he refused to actually address the ethical claims of transhumanism. Instead, he basically called transhumanists dorks and said the fact that they’re (allegedly) mostly white dudes is proof that transhumanism is wrong. That is not exactly logically valid.
April 10, 2011 at 11:22 pm |
In addition to being critic of transhumanism and other varieties of superlative futurology, I happen to be a white guy myself, not to mention a dork, and I would strongly encourage anybody actually interested in seeing a critique that systematically addresses both the assumptions and claims of these discourses and subcultures to read my Condensed Critique of Transhumanism. For critiques of futurism arising specifically from my environmentalist politics folks drawn to this blog might also be interested in the pieces collected under the heading Futurology Against Ecology.