Tuesday 17 May 2011

Is it possible to unite transhumanism and degrowth?

I have always had mixed feelings about transhumanism. On one hand, the movement provides fresh ideas and great speculative material, but on the other hand, it seems to suffer from a kind of adolescent "nothing is enough" attitude on every possible level.

Transhumanism, in short, advocates the use of technology for turning humans into something better: creatures with ridiculously long lifespans, ridiculous levels of intelligence and ridiculous amounts of pleasure in life. In order to endlessly improve all the statistics, the transcendental mankind needs more and more energy and raw material. One planet is definitely not enough -- we need to populate an ever bigger portion of the universe with ever bigger brainlike structures. To me, these ideas sound like an extreme glorification of our current number one memetic plague, the ideology of endless economic growth. What a pity, since some of the stuff does make some sense.

Fortunately, there seems to be more room for diversity in transhumanist thought than that. As there are currents such as "Christian Transhumanism" or "Social-Democratic Transhumanism", would it be possible to devise something like "Degrowthian Transhumanism" as well? Something that denounces the growth ideology while still advocating scientific and technological progress in order to transform mankind into something better? This would be a form of transhumanist philosophy even I might be able to appreciate and symphatize. But could such a bastard child of two seemingly conflicting ideologies be anything else than oxymoronic and inconsistent? Let's find out.

The degrowth movement, as the name says, advocates the contraction of economies by downscaling production, as it views the excessive production and consumption in today's societies as detrimental to both the environment and the quality of human life. Consumers need to switch their materialist lifestyles into voluntary simplicity, and producers need to abandon things like planned obsolescence that artificially keep the production volumes up. Downscaling will also give people more free time, which can be used for noble quests such as charity and self-cultivation. These goals may sound agreeable on their own, even to a transhumanist, but what about the technological progress? Downscaling the industries would also slow it down or even reverse it, wouldn't it?

Actually, quite many technologies make it possible to do "more with less" and therefore scale dependency networks down. Personal computers, for example, have succesfully replaced an arsenal of special-purpose gadgets ranging from typewriters and television sets to expensive studio equipment. 3D printing technology will reduce the need for specialized mass production, and once we get nanobots to assist in it, we will never require mines or factories anymore. A degrowthian transhumanist may want to emphasize this kind of potential in emergencing technologies and advocate their use for downshifting instead of upshifting. A radical one may even take the provocative stance that only those technologies that reduce overhead are genuinely progressive.

A degrowthian transhumanist may want to advocate immaterial developments whenever possible: memetics, science, software. Information is much more lightweight to process than matter or energy and therefore an obvious point of focus for anyone who wants to support both degrowth and technological progress. Most people in our time do not understand how crucial software is in making hardware perform well, so a degrowthian transhumanist may want to shout it out every now and then. It is entirely possible that we already have the hardware for launching a technological singularity, we just don't have the software yet. We may all have savant potential in our brains, we just haven't found the magic formula to unleash it with. In general, we don't need new gadgetry as much as we need in-depth understanding of what we already have.

In a downshifted society, people will have a lot of free time. A degrowthian transhumanist may therefore be more willing to adopt time-consuming methods of self-improvement than the mainline transhumanist who fantasizes about quick and easy mass-produced magic such as instant IQ pills. Wisdom is a classical example of a psychological feature that takes time to build up, so a degrowthian transhumanist may want to put a special emphasis on it. Using intelligence without wisdom may have catastrophic results, so we need superhuman wisdom to complement superhuman intelligence, and maybe even artificial wisdom to complement artificial intelligence. The quest for immortality is no longer just about an individual desire to live as long as possible, but about having individuals and societies that get wise enough to use their superhuman capacities in a non-catastrophic way.

So, how would a race of degrowthian superhumans spend their lives? By reducing and reducing until there's nothing left but ultimate reclusion? I don't think so. The degrowth movement is mostly a reaction towards the present state of the world and not a dogma that should be adhered to its logical extreme. Once we have scaled our existence down to some kind of sustainable moderateness, we won't need to degrow any further. Degrowthian transhumans would therefore very well colonize a planet or moon every now and then, they just wouldn't regard expansion as an ends of its own. In general, these creatures would be rather serious about the principles of moderation and middle way in anything they do. They would probably also be more independent and self-sufficient than their extropian counterparts who, on their part, would have more brain cells, gadgets and space to toy around with.

This was a thought experiment I carried out in order to clarify my own relationship with the transhumanist ideology. I tried to find a fundamental disagreement between the core transhumanist ideas and my personal philosophy but didn't find one. Still, I don't think I'll be calling myself a transhumanist (even a degrowthian one) any time soon; I just wanted to be sure how much I can sympathize this bunch of freaks. I also considered my point of view fresh enough to write it up and share with others, so there you are, hope you liked it.

13 comments:

Piotr LA said...

It's great that you describe this topic on your blog.
Aussie flings

mastershoping said...

فروش عمده واتر اسلایم از این پس در فروشگاه اینترنتی اسلایم به فروش میرسد، شما می توانید بصورت کاملا انحصاری از این فروشگاه بصورت عمده خرید خودتان را انجام دهید. اگر به دنبال فروش عمده اسلایم با قیمت بسیار مناسب هستید و نمی خواهید تعداد بسیار بالا خرید کنید ما به شما کمک می کنیم تا بتوانید محصولات مورد نظر خودتان را از ما خریداری کنید. این روزها اسلایم ماده ای جالب و دوست داشتنی در بین کودکان می باشد که همانند خمیر بوده و براحتی در دستان شما قرار میگیرد و مخاطبان اصلی آن کودکان می باشند.
پخش عمده اسلایم

John said...

دانلود آهنگ علی یاسینی چراغونی (گفته بودم بری زندگی نمیکنم یه روزم) دانلود آهنگ علی یاسینی چراغونی (گفته بودم بری زندگی نمیکنم یه روزم)

No Name said...

Selling USA FRESH SPAMMED SSN Leads/Fullz, along with Driving License/ID Number with EXCELLENT connectivity.

**PRICE**
>>2$ FOR EACH LEAD/FULLZ/PROFILE
>>5$ FOR EACH PREMIUM LEAD/FULLZ/PROFILE

>All Leads are Tested & Verified.
>Invalid info found, will be replaced.
>Serious buyers will be welcome & will give discounts to them.
>Fresh spammed data of USA Credit Bureau
>Good credit Scores, 700 minimum scores.

Email > leads.sellers1212@gmail.com
Telegram > @leadsupplier
ICQ > 752822040

**DETAILS IN EACH LEAD/FULLZ**

->FULL NAME
->SSN
->DATE OF BIRTH
->DRIVING LICENSE NUMBER WITH EXPIRY DATE
->ADDRESS WITH ZIP
->PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL, I.P ADDRESS
->EMPLOYEE DETAILS
->REALTIONSHIP DETAILS
->MORTGAGE INFO
->BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS

->Bulk order will be preferable
->Minimum order 25 to 30 leads/fullz
->Hope for the long term business
->You can asked for specific states & zips
->You can demand for samples if you want to test
->Data will be given with in few mins after payment received
->Payment mode BTC, PAYPAL & PERFECT MONEY

**Contact 24/7**

Email > leads.sellers1212@gmail.com
Telegram > @leadsupplier
ICQ > 752822040

No Name said...

**SELLING SSN+DOB FULLZ**

CONTACT
Telegram > @leadsupplier
ICQ > 752822040
Email > leads.sellers1212@gmail.com

>>1$ each without DL/ID number
>>2$ each with DL
>>5$ each for premium (also included relative info)

*Will reduce price if buying in bulk
*Hope for a long term business

FORMAT OF LEADS/FULLZ/PROS

->FULL NAME
->SSN
->DATE OF BIRTH
->DRIVING LICENSE NUMBER WITH EXPIRY DATE
->COMPLETE ADDRESS
->PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL, I.P ADDRESS
->EMPLOYMENT DETAILS
->REALTIONSHIP DETAILS
->MORTGAGE INFO
->BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS

>Fresh Leads for tax returns & w-2 form filling
>Payment mode BTC, ETH, LTC, PayPal, USDT & PERFECT MONEY

''OTHER GADGETS PROVIDING''

>SSN+DOB Fullz
>CC with CVV
>Photo ID's
>Dead Fullz
>Spamming Tutorials
>Carding Tutorials
>Hacking Tutorials
>SMTP Linux Root
>DUMPS with pins track 1 and 2
>Sock Tools
>Server I.P's
>HQ Emails with passwords

Email > leads.sellers1212@gmail.com
Telegram > @leadsupplier
ICQ > 752822040

THANK YOU

Arul Raj said...

Amaing blog post,Thank you.
look here
Sofa Refurbishing in Bellandur

โรซ่า said...

Hello, we have a game to recommend.

ทางเข้า ufabet
ufabet kick
รูเล็ตสายฟ้า
แทง บอล ผ่าน มือ ถือ
กา บอล

Thank you for your interest."

Anonymous said...

[Ha-cking, Spamming, Carding]
[Tools with Tutorials, Ebooks & Guides]
:-Fresh Spammed Fullz/Pros/Leads
:-All USA states fullz Available
:-High Credit scores & Good Connectivity
=>Details Included
"Name|SSN|DOB|DL|Complete Address|Employee details|Bank Account Details"
>CC's with CVV (USA/UK/Canada)
>Dumps With Pins
>Legit & 100% Valid info
{Contact Details]
WA +92/317/272-1122
ICQ 752-822-040
TG @leadsupplier/@killhacks
*SMTP's/RDP's/Mailers/C-panels
*Brutes/VPN's/Proxies/Server I.p's
*Kali-Linux Complete with tutorials
*D=eep/D==ark web complete courses
*F^^ud B^^le 2021-22-23 Updated
*SQLi Injector/Key-loggers/Viru-ses/RAT's
=>Legit tools with working guarantee
=>Invalid info/Stuff will be replace
=>Payment Mode BTC & USDT
e-mail exploit.tools4u at g-mail dot com
WA +92 317 272 1122
ICQ/TG @killhacks

Thanks in advance

Ali Rad said...

very nice post thank you @-@ آهنگ عماد طالب زاده جات خالیه الان

gostopsite.com said...

Thanks and Best of luck to your next Blog in future.

sportstotomen.com said...

Way cool! Some very valid points!

casinosite.zone said...

Your site is so cool. I am impressed by the details that you? Ive on this website.

edwardsrailcar.com said...

Its an amazing website, really enjoy your articles. Helpful and interesting too.