Reason.com
Most Popular Stories
- St. Louis Cops Worry That In-Car Cameras 'Are Being Used Against Them' (5.23)
- Here Are the 15 Senators Who Voted to Stop Armed FDA Agents From Conducting Warrantless Raids on America's Farmers (Not One of Them is a Democrat) (5.24)
- Reason "Hero of Freedom" Larry Flynt's Latest Stunt? Photoshopping a Penis into Mouth of Conservative Pundit S.E. Cupp (5.24)
- When Government Privileges Trump the Rights of Citizens (5.25)
- Plastic Bag Ban Will Put Los Angeles In Landfill (5.23)
Reason RUPE: Public Opinion Survey
- Reason-Rupe: Wisconsinites Favor Increasing Public Union Retirement Contributions to Address Budget Deficit (5.25)
- Reason-Rupe Poll Finds Support for Public Union Reforms (5.25)
- New Poll: Obama Leads Romney In Wisconsin, But Gary Johnson Could Impact the Race (5.24)
- Wisconsin Recall: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42 Among Likely Voters (5.24)
- Reason-Rupe Poll: Walker Leads Barrett 50-42, Obama Leads Romney 46-36 (5.24)
advertisements
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsSite comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment or disable your ability to comment for any reason at any time.
|8.25.04 @ 6:55AM|#
"the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government"
You mean Reason should stop its lost cause proselytising for the demise of the State ;-)
More to the point - this is the problem with "anti-transhumanists" of all stripes. They seem to confuse their limited imagination with the bounds of human potential. Specifically, "Our Posthuman Future" was filled with authoratative definitions of what it means to be Human,for the purpose of formulating policy around that definition. The guy has a habit of acting like ethicists and regulators are way ahead of science when it comes to understanding Homo Sapiens. In fact many of his arguments in that book mirrored old 19 century arguments against vaccines, aneasthesia and whatnot.
|8.25.04 @ 7:02AM|#
Fukyama seems to be depending on the "ick" factor. So he's not talking about people free of genetic disease or other obvious benefits, but people who'll have squirrel tails put on their elbows.
Another thing is that I think the transhumanist oponents way overestimate how easy it would be to create transhuman features that would give the bearers a drastic advantage over us regular folk. It takes natural evolution lots and lots of failures to find that advantage, I don't see why people wouild have an easier time of it.
|8.25.04 @ 7:24AM|#
Will it help with forgetting anniversaries, or will women become rational instead?
|8.25.04 @ 7:51AM|#
Sssshh! Don't tell me...
Subscribe to Reason for a minimum of three years?
|8.25.04 @ 7:59AM|#
A fascinating article but it overlooks one obvious point. The transhumans will rule only until they are smashed by the superior might of the inter-galactic robot overlords. Mwah-ha-ha!
|8.25.04 @ 8:45AM|#
Okay. Now that I've taken a gander at what we're talking about here, has anybody stopped to get goddess' take on this?
As I recall from the Top Ten Countdown of Jammin' Oldie Commandments, two minimum warn of goddess maybe being pissed at where you eggheads are headed here.
That giant sucking sound is you pointy heads walking through the muck of your baker, your masseusse , your candlestick-maker... they being still pretty much stuck on goddess, and gunnin' for the likes of you.
Gittin' too big for yo' britches are ye, they say? I hear them sucking and groaning.
|8.25.04 @ 8:45AM|#
"So he's not talking about people free of genetic disease or other obvious benefits, but people who'll have squirrel tails put on their elbows."
Fukyama is missing one thing: They're OUR elbows, and we can graft anything I want onto them. ;)
|8.25.04 @ 9:00AM|#
Fukyama seems to be depending on the "ick" factor. So he's not talking about people free of genetic disease or other obvious benefits, but people who'll have squirrel tails put on their elbows.
Take a look at this cow: ick!
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/opinion/25kristof.html?hp
|8.25.04 @ 9:26AM|#
"Another thing is that I think the transhumanist oponents way overestimate how easy it would be to create transhuman features that would give the bearers a drastic advantage over us regular folk. It takes natural evolution lots and lots of failures to find that advantage, I don't see why people wouild have an easier time of it."
This doesn't make much sense. It takes a long time for humans to evolve a natural resistance to a disease, but a vaccine does the job pretty quickly. Evolution is a nearly random, unguided process. It's not unreasonable to think that humans could do a better job. I agree that many transhumanists oversell the timetable and benefits from genetic modification, but your reasoning isn't very persuasive.
|8.25.04 @ 11:24AM|#
That is one ugly cow, er ah, bull.
Nobody knows exactly where cows came from, but we are pretty sure that humans screwed with something eons ago and over time came up with something that vaguely resembles the modern cow. Of course, that wasn't genetic engineering because it took a really long dang time.
Then again, I may be full of, well, icky cow pie stuff.
Robert J. Ringer|8.25.04 @ 11:27AM|#
In 50 billion years the sun is going to burn out and the earth will become a giant ball of ice and none of this genetic engineering stuff will matter one whit.
|8.25.04 @ 11:31AM|#
In 50 billion years, we could all be snowmen capable of living at -270 degrees Centigrade, thank to the wonders of genetic engineering! Let's start now!
|8.26.04 @ 2:20AM|#
"In fact many of his arguments in that book mirrored old 19 century arguments against vaccines, aneasthesia and whatnot."
Excellent point! (btw, if it wasn't for whatnot curing my ancestors, I wouldn't be here today)
|8.26.04 @ 2:28AM|#
"Will it help with forgetting anniversaries, or will women become rational instead?
Comment by: Ron Hardin at August 25, 2004 07:24 PM"
best post ever man.
Highway|8.26.04 @ 10:08AM|#
I don't know how realistic it is to think that, after decades of humans moving toward respecting the rights of other animals, not just those who are humans of another race, but food and wild animals as well, transhumans, whom you would think would be some of the MOST enlightened humans, would reverse course and decide that they could just predate and enslave all those 'below' them. I will admit that it would be possible, I just see it as extraordinarily unlikely. I think it's far more likely that transhumans, if pushed, would leave this planet or solar system.
Or maybe I read too much Heinlein. :)
Kent Brockman|8.26.04 @ 10:26AM|#
I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.
|8.26.04 @ 11:12AM|#
Not only would we have to be able to survive at -250C in 6 billion years, but we have to somehow make it through the planetary nebula stage of our sun, which will be hitting earth, and probably boiling off all the water.