From: swilbur-AT-wcnet.org Subject: Re: it gives me hope Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 13:40:20 US/Eastern This is "transhumanism" of the FM Esfandiary (FM2030)/Upwinger variety - a sort of technophilic cult that goes back to the '70s. I'm not sure it makes much sense to compare the kind of "heroic," individualist upwinger, so convinced and enamored of change and progress that all the trappings of identity become hinderances to "upwinging," with the grunts and tars roped into the atomic tests. Obviously, since we don't share the Gernbackian optimism that drives them, we are likely to see them as complicit in the very messy, costly business of technological development, where, as you say, things don't work out as smoothly as some would like to imagine. My reading of this crowd - and i read quite a bit of Esfandiary back when i was working "cyberpunk" territory - was that there was a good deal of elitism, married to a kind of rightwing "libertarian," let the fruits go to those who dare, kind of mentality. It's not the sort of worldview i would promote, though it's perhaps a tad less objectionable than the "mind children" stuff. I imagine the transhumanists think of themselves as experimenting as much as being experimented on - an attitude they share with gazillions of body modifiers of various sorts. And, no doubt, they're right to some extent. In any event, it's a bit hard to see the "fascism" here. -shawn --------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Endymion MailMan. http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/
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