There is no stop button in the race for human re-engineering

World Transhumanist Association ^ | 1/30/06 | Margaret Bunting

[dirtboy]

What place will equality have in this brave new world?

Millions of souls have been slaughtered through the centuries because of notions of genetic superiority. Wonder what's gonna happen when some actually ARE superior because of genetic engineering?

[antaresequity]

The race is on to identify the political genes...

The winner will purge the losers from the gene pool...

Imagine a nation of Hillary Clinton clones...

[jwalsh07]

Same as always. Slavery and murder.

[Junior]

Machine's can't think, since thought is an essentially spiritual activity.

Really? And the peer-reviewed science behind your assertion can be found where?

[dirtboy]

They dream of a day when they "shed their human bodies," and are pure intellect.

I wouldn't be so sure.

We live in an age when thousands of people have themselves injected with botulism toxin to look a bit better. What's gonna happen when you can engineer your kids (or yourself, for that matter), to have a distinct advantage in life that non-engineered people will not have?

[dirtboy]

Same as always. Slavery and murder.

Except it could well go well beyond that to extermination of non-engineered humans at some point. And a genetics arms race within the remainder.

[MineralMan]

"What's gonna happen when you can engineer your kids (or yourself, for that matter), to have a distinct advantage in life that non-engineered people will not have?
"

I don't know, to tell you the truth. So far, we can't do that, and I'll be dead by the time we can.

For now, folks will have to try to marry those with whom they can make good babies. I'm not sure how well that is working these days.

[dirtboy]

For now, folks will have to try to marry those with whom they can make good babies. I'm not sure how well that is working these days.

I'm living proof it ain't :^)

[ThinkDifferent]

Machine's can't think, since thought is an essentially spiritual activity. AI is nothing more than one big category error.

I disagree, but we'll likely have a pretty good idea who's right in 20 years or so.

[JudgemAll]

It's because you can't prove your leads and your intuition about Darwinism that it gives them the right to force you to adopt their policies.

It's the usual unethical blasphemer under the guise of science and social experimentation expediency. You are their guinea pig by force because right now they claim to have the best theory.

[chipengineer]

>These wierd folks are just nutcases. They dream of a day when they "shed their human bodies," and are pure intellect.

The meek shall inherit the Earth (The rest of us will go to the stars!)

[MillerCreek]

MORAL ABSOLUTES Ping.

DISCUSSION ABOUT:

"There is no 'Stop Button' in the race for human engineering"

Now it's called "human engineering" but it's still research upon human embryonic cells and advances in the area of human cloning -- however theoretically, still actually given that the real human material that represents human life is being used as research and exploration processes -- but it's as unbridled now as ever before.

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[jennyp]

Who would? But how do their ideas contradict evolutionary thought? Isn't natural selection constantly improving us, as we are constantly evolving?

Life extension & transhumanism (which seems to be <ahem> life-extension on steroids) are both orthogonal to evolution. Why would you think there was any relation between the two? Are you saying that a creationist shouldn't want to extend their lives or try to ensure that they'll still mentally alert when they reach 100? How strange.

[jennyp]

So since we've been tinkering with genetics on accident for centuries there could be a good reason to tinker deliberately. The problem is when to say when. Using genetic modification to get rid of things like sickle cell and asthma are probably good. Cosmetic alterations would definitely be bad. Somewhere in between there is the line, not sure where though.

But those kinds of questions pop up with any technological advance. "Who gets the advance & who doesn't?" "How do 'we' decide?"

In general the best answer has always been to let the free market decide. Then people's actual values get to come into play in an organic way to achieve the (presumably) most ideal result that the real world can produce.

In an authoritarian, fascist, overregulated society a new technology such as this could easily turn into a horror. But in the free world? The best (or at least the most benign) scenarios are most likely.

That's why I'm basically an optimist WRT these new technologies. Because I'm basically an optimist WRT the future of freedom generally.

[discostu]

There are some levels of technology it really isn't best to let the market decide on. Advanced weapons systems would be high on the list, and genetic tinkering should be on the list too.

[TAdams8591]

"To the real enthusiasts - they call themselves transhumanists - humanity is on the point of being liberated from its biology. In their advocacy of our “technological rights”, they believe that human beings are on the brink of a huge leap in development, leaving behind the sick, quarrelsome, weak, fallible creatures we have been up to now. We will be, as their slogan goes, “better than well”."

It's sounds so Sci-Fi. How chilling.

[RunningWolf]

We all knew where this ideology would lead to.

The karmic consequences may be cataspohic for mankind at many levels. It will not be all nice elegant and beautiful as some would infer. Life trumps fantasy every-time, in glory and nightmare.

Wolf

[Centurion2000]

What's gonna happen when you can engineer your kids (or yourself, for that matter), to have a distinct advantage in life that non-engineered people will not have?

The genies will have an edge over baseline humans. Everyone that can afford it will probably do it.

[metmom]

And of course, we will need the elite super-humans to decide what's best for the rest of us peons. I shudder to think of that kind of power in the hands of immoral, corruptible humans. I read an interesting book some time ago called The Great Reckoning (I believe was the title) that addresses this kind of issue. Rather frightening, what this guy saw coming.

[The_Reader_David]

Yup.

If you want a really clear look at how dark it gets, find a place to rent the entire Ghost in the Shell series--the original movie, the TV series, and expecially the second movie Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.

As everyone on FR knows, I'm convinced the Mark of the Beast will contain a neural interface--if it doesn't make repentence impossible, it doesn't fit the bill.