The Future has a PR Problem:
Names like ‘the Extropy Institute’ and “World Transhumanist Association” are scary. The terms ‘genetic engineering’, ‘cyborg’, ‘nanotech’, ‘artificial intelligence’, all carry negative connotations and associated imagery among the general American & European populaces.
We have to stop scaring people. We have already scared many intelligent and influential people who feel that their anti-progress efforts are for the common good. It’s bad enough that people like the odious Dr. Kass exist; we don’t need to turn good but misguided people against us as well.
We’ve all seen the rampaging robots and evil AI’s that are part and parcel of mindless Hollywood attempts at science fiction. We’ve read Michael Crichton fictionalize a powerful nanotechnology, one which in said fictional portrayal was developed to the point of being able to cure AIDS, cancer, and all of the infectious horrors of this world, and turn it into the stuff of nightmares. And what a superficially convincing and powerful nightmare “Prey” is; Crichton is a cultural heavyweight indeed.
I will not address the issue of religious fundamentalists here. They do not deserve even cursory attention in respect to their points of view.
I will at this point offer some suggestions regarding the various issues above.
General Artificial Intelligence => non-biological person
Nanotech => molecular technology
The Singularity => the new golden age, the new renaissance
Genemod lifeform => enhanced plant, enhanced animal, etc.
Cyborg => (suggestions?)
Uploading => transferring, ‘new afterlife’?? (suggestions?)
Genemod human => gifted?
Of course there are many potential ‘scare-words’ that I have omitted here.
Scare-words are bad, Scare-names are worse. EXI, WTA, SIAI, and many other Transhumanist organizations have very scary names indeed. To those of us who are used to such ideas and goals, these terms and words and concepts feel completely natural. Many of us work in the sciences; many of us teach or are students. A good number have devoted their lives to medicine, whether it is saving lives in the OR or in the lab. Almost without exception, we are well educated, formally, self-taught, or a combination of both. We watch or read the news. We appreciate and often create art, literature, etc. Some of us believe in God, some don’t. Those who believe are sincere and thoughtful in their faith, not intolerant and judgmental.
The traits I listed above are not those of the general population. I know this all sounds very elitist, and I don’t care. It is elitist. In America’s anti-intellectual society, a charge of elitism is a grave one. But without elitism, we would still be on the savannah, gathering fruits and berries and hunting Gazelle. I do not look down on people who live in such societies – they generally lead very fulfilling, rich lives. They matter to their society, and their society acknowledges and rewards this fact. This is not a common feeling among the citizens of the first world.
But make no mistake; an intelligent species that stays at its baseline non-technological social state is doomed unless a friendly alien intelligence drops by. Ironically, the dolphins are quite lucky to be coexistent with us. There is a harsh reality here: any lifeform that never gets off it’s home planet is an evolutionary dead-end.
Elitism pervades everything we do. If it didn’t we wouldn’t go to a doctor when we are sick, and we would invite burger-flippers to speak at graduations. Democracy is wonderful as long as the rights of the minority are upheld. Those who generally subscribe to the ideals and goals of transhumanism are a minority, and our rights are under attack. Simple rights like the right to live free of disease and physical & mental suffering.
The best outcome is if all of the things I talked about involving off shore research and the like were unnecessary. The only way that will happen is by changing the system, and the best but hardest way to do that is by working within the system. I have discussed subversion and defiance as a solution to both problems visited thus far, and I will return to such topics again. For now I will address traditional forms of activism and protest, and political organization
