(no subject)

[egypturnash]

What is it about transhuman thought that seems to freak people out? circuit_four has been grumping lately about the number of TV shows and movies that present transhumanism as Meddling With Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, and the last few paragraphs in this article on extreme caloric restriction as a life-extending mechanism take that same bent.

It's like there's some sort of defense mechanism in our bodies, our culture, that wants to react against the idea of possibly not dying, of transcending the limits of what we were born with. I don't know if I'll make it to the point where life extension is something I can afford, I don't know if I'll manage to move my mind off of the biological processes it was born on. I'll welcome the possibility if I can get it.

Do these people sound cultish and crazy to the writer because they are, or are they cultish-sounding the same way, say, a Mac user sounds to a Windows person: something that works so well they can't believe they ever did it the hard way? I dunno.

hell, I'm already modifying my body in "unnatural" ways what with the transition...

Comments

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

My eyes kinda glazed over at the actual article - just too much time being asked to spend with egocentric "truppies," imho. So just out of curiosity, was there any mention that I missed, whatsoever, of the global effects of a microcalorie diet, either in terms of the developed world consuming fewer calories or the . The only thing that really bugged me about this article is it strikes me as "boutique transhumanism": "Screw the ultimate existential fate of a human race that lives forever and commands all knowledge. Will I have a bitchin' bod in the year 3000!?"

Besides, I won't take part in a revolution that won't let me dance, and I won't take part in a transcendence with no tiramisu. (But then, you hear me say this every time Rik tries to feed me food discs. :) ) Hell, I'll even take soy tiramisu. Or perfectly recorded and replayed sense impressions of eating tiramisu. But no dessert capsules. :)

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

The article never came right out and pondered the global impact of the CR diet becoming widespread in America. It did compare the CR diet to those of sub-Saharan Africans, but that was about it. My thoughts on it were that if American's stopped eating so much we would probably just stop making so much food instead of feeding the rest of the world. Although we probably wouldn't reduce our farm subsidies so we would have a Midwest full of people being paid to not grow corn for the durn foreigners.

Maybe if the 100 dollar laptop program comes to fruition, all those people in Africa who are already living on starvation diets will have access to the software they need to maximize their nutrient intake, and transhumanism will first be achieved by ancient and immortal Africans!