(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

[packbat.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned, there's only one thing that bothers me about transhumanism: "Has this been properly beta-tested?" ;) And while those CR fellows did sound a little odd, it's equally possible that the writer merely didn't get it.

[orb2069.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia's article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction) links to the more-or-less current state of research: Near as I can tell, it's fairly well established that it works, but nobody's completely pegged down the mechanism yet.

OTOH, Walford (Yeah, the walking skeleton on the Biosphere 2 crew.), one of the major proponents of CR (http://isbn.nu/aisbn/walford%20roy%20l) died of "complications of ALS, a rare muscle wasting disease with no well-established modifiable risk factors"(Here) (http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?s=&act=ST&f=1&t=3545).

I tried Walford's diet from the 120 year diet out for a few months: IMO, the recipes were expensive, complex, and the food was bland. I am normally NOT very picky about food, but I really couldn't stay on this.