In my view, as an ethos transhumanism relies largely on pessimism and myopia in order to grow in numbers.
Pessimism, meaning that it requires an assumption that humanity can't reach as 'ideal' of an evolution as the one offered up by our own engineers. This is quite the assumption, to claim clairvoyance at such a time scale.
Myopia, meaning that the 'long arc' of the moral universe, which Theodore Parker and MLK Jr. asserted bends towards justice (directed by the hands of human endeavor,) is outside of the scope of human consciousness.
These two traits (which I would call negative) are currently tightly woven into the fabric of our society: We live in a time when the ills of humanity are held up as the only exhibit of our existence, and in my experience anyone who speaks of the beauty and potential of humanity is shouted down as a naive imbecile by way of examples of the past and current human condition.
But amidst all of the current atrocity and anxiety, it's quite easy to see the long arc bending in the right direction even as we speak, and the bell curve is becoming faster as well.
To use an American example - thousands of years for the collective consciousness to declare slavery abysmal, 200 years for it to recognize racial minorities as equals, 50 years for it to recognize and accept the spectrum of sexuality. Some will point out that examples of slavery and racism still exist, but to deny that collectively we are moving past them in my opinion shows the myopia I'm talking about.
I don't think it's such a long shot to believe that once we reach the point in that long arc where we can stop dividing ourselves with concerns about energy, food, power struggles, etc, that our natural consciousness and existence will expand at a greatly accelerated pace, without the need for self-augmentation. But then again, maybe I'm just a drooling optimist.
The idea that we know the best direction for us to head in an evolutionary sense is hard for me to swallow. Leaving humanity behind like a rotting husk seems rather presumptuous to me personally.
In my view, as an ethos transhumanism relies largely on pessimism and myopia in order to grow in numbers.
Pessimism, meaning that it requires an assumption that humanity can't reach as 'ideal' of an evolution as the one offered up by our own engineers. This is quite the assumption, to claim clairvoyance at such a time scale.
Myopia, meaning that the 'long arc' of the moral universe, which Theodore Parker and MLK Jr. asserted bends towards justice (directed by the hands of human endeavor,) is outside of the scope of human consciousness.
These two traits (which I would call negative) are currently tightly woven into the fabric of our society: We live in a time when the ills of humanity are held up as the only exhibit of our existence, and in my experience anyone who speaks of the beauty and potential of humanity is shouted down as a naive imbecile by way of examples of the past and current human condition.
But amidst all of the current atrocity and anxiety, it's quite easy to see the long arc bending in the right direction even as we speak, and the bell curve is becoming faster as well.
To use an American example - thousands of years for the collective consciousness to declare slavery abysmal, 200 years for it to recognize racial minorities as equals, 50 years for it to recognize and accept the spectrum of sexuality. Some will point out that examples of slavery and racism still exist, but to deny that collectively we are moving past them in my opinion shows the myopia I'm talking about.
I don't think it's such a long shot to believe that once we reach the point in that long arc where we can stop dividing ourselves with concerns about energy, food, power struggles, etc, that our natural consciousness and existence will expand at a greatly accelerated pace, without the need for self-augmentation. But then again, maybe I'm just a drooling optimist.
The idea that we know the best direction for us to head in an evolutionary sense is hard for me to swallow. Leaving humanity behind like a rotting husk seems rather presumptuous to me personally.