Joesph, in his blog, Posthumanity Rising, writes about how even though he's atheist he still thinks Christmas is important to celebrate. His blog inspired me to write about the myths we tell our children and the valuable life lesson that can be passed on when they learn the "truth."
For generations in America and elsewhere, myths have been an integral part of growing up, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny come to mind.
Many parents have been there for their children when they learn that Santa Claus is not what they had been led to believe but a product of their imaginations, reinforced by adults and media such as cartoons.
Myself, I only have a year or two left before I will also be there for my children.
What will I say to my child when he discovers that what he believes can no longer be supported by what he sees in the world around him. He's already asking questions. He's still holding on to the "magic yet I can see that he senses something is not right.
How many conversations have you had whith your children where he or she says, "Magic must be real because how could Santa deliver all those presents in one day?"
What lesson should we pass on to them?
While I have been determined to not tell my children what to believe about religion or even death, especially since I am unsure myself, I am also determined to let them know that nothing can be taken for the absolute truth.
Most of us remember the recent discussions on whether Pluto should remain a planet. My son didn't like the answers he was hearing since up until that point every book he had read told him it was in fact one of nine planets. His concern revolved around the question, "How can scientists decide that it's not a planet anymore?" In his mind, he imagined it literally disappearing from our solar system and obviously no scientists can make planets disappear.
I believe it's at times like these were a little philosophy maybe even transhuman philosophy can come in.
Many of us are bright enough to know that we don't know everything and things that we think we know for sure will likely change. The transhumanist point, here is that our understanding of the universe will change.
The message I intend to convey to the first of my kids to cross the magic barrier is that we can only know what we know but that we should never ever take for granted that that's all there is. There is no ultimate truth that we can ever hope to comprehend, only temporary models or better approximations that we are forced to use until something better comes along. I'm sure I will add some reassuring thoughts at the end about gravity and the light from the sun because I don't want him to be insecure or afraid of the universe coming to an end tomorrow, I just want him to be cognisant of the fact that what we know will change.
I'm not sure, exactly, how to convey these thoughts meaningfully to a child so if anyone has any advice or input have at it. It may be a multistep process.
Showing posts with label transhumanist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transhumanist. Show all posts
20061120
Posthuman Shit: It really does smell like roses
Apologia:
Here I go again. It's my fourth post and I'm still talking about the little things in life. This time it's all about the smell of posthuman excrement. Seriously, don't I have something better to do.
Nope.
So before, I draw any scientific (used loosely here) conclusions about what posthuman waste is or isn't, I think it's prudent for me to step way back and ask a fundamental question. Will posthumans crap?
Sure, some of you may be saying to yourselves, "Who gives a shit." (lame pun intended) and some of you will even press the left arrow to prove the point but for those of you curious enough to stick it out a bit longer, you can feel good knowing that we are about to discover a deep insight into the reality of posthuman life.
Biology and Conservation of Energy:
Back to that posthuman crap. Will they? Why would they? What about the smell? Without going through a biology class, let me just say that crap in equals crap out. Many of you IQ follower types are probably thinking that the posthuman energy source of tomorrow isn't crap because crap isn't a very efficient food source and that you just scored yourself another IQ point. But you are wrong. Here's why.
The only energy source that would be available to a human who goes through a transhuman phase to become posthuman is the organic kind and if it's organics in it's organics out. Decomposing organics don't really smell that great unless you're a gardener. Even better, a gardener who grows rose bushes. I am not a gardener.
You see, the most readily available energy source for non-biological components in a biological human would probably be Adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP). Again, we'll skip biology class and try to get to at least one point. The point is, that at each stage of each transhuman phase will be the installation of components that use biological process to derive energy. When that last bit of biological human is finally removed, and good riddance because it was starting to stink up the hardware, there will remain a complete non-biological human that was designed to use organic food as the primary energy source.
Waste of Effort:
As we all know, not every organic molecule is useful to our bodies. If all of the molecules were useful, our throne would have to be resigned to the fact that it was just a porcelein God. Alas, this is not the case, we use it regularly for a throne and only on rare occasions do we pray to that forgiving God.
Surely we recognized that our bodies, through evolution, have predetermined which molecules take a little energy input to get a large energy output and which molecules are just a plain waste of effort. This "waste of effort," my friend, is what we shall call "posthuman crap."
Removing That Smelly Smell:
Now about the smell. If, for some reason, our posthuman selves determine that smelly crap is beneath us then our embedded nanites could expend the extra energy required to sequester the remaining aromatic volatiles and move them to off site storage or possibly convert them to something useful.
Or...
Since it would be a waste of effort to sequester organic volatiles or to convert them to something useful or especially to add the extra step of replacing the crap smell with essence de la rose petals, it would be much more likely that crap smells will continue to smell like crap.
This smelly crap future is not so bad though. Posthumans will be able to specifically filter out unpleasant odor information or reroute automatic response signals in such a way that the famed smell of butt won't be perceived as necessarily good or bad but merely as useful information such as for predicting what a person ate the night before. "Ewww! Did you have a dozen boiled eggs for dinner or what!"
There's Always a Catch:
This posthuman crap thing, however, only works if posthumans decide to continuously occupy their regularly upgraded living quarters (their bodies). All bets are off, if instead the posthumans decide to upload their minds and completely leave the body behind, which, by the way, is a decent segway into my next post...The First Posthuman.
Here I go again. It's my fourth post and I'm still talking about the little things in life. This time it's all about the smell of posthuman excrement. Seriously, don't I have something better to do.
Nope.
So before, I draw any scientific (used loosely here) conclusions about what posthuman waste is or isn't, I think it's prudent for me to step way back and ask a fundamental question. Will posthumans crap?
Sure, some of you may be saying to yourselves, "Who gives a shit." (lame pun intended) and some of you will even press the left arrow to prove the point but for those of you curious enough to stick it out a bit longer, you can feel good knowing that we are about to discover a deep insight into the reality of posthuman life.
Biology and Conservation of Energy:
Back to that posthuman crap. Will they? Why would they? What about the smell? Without going through a biology class, let me just say that crap in equals crap out. Many of you IQ follower types are probably thinking that the posthuman energy source of tomorrow isn't crap because crap isn't a very efficient food source and that you just scored yourself another IQ point. But you are wrong. Here's why.
The only energy source that would be available to a human who goes through a transhuman phase to become posthuman is the organic kind and if it's organics in it's organics out. Decomposing organics don't really smell that great unless you're a gardener. Even better, a gardener who grows rose bushes. I am not a gardener.
You see, the most readily available energy source for non-biological components in a biological human would probably be Adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP). Again, we'll skip biology class and try to get to at least one point. The point is, that at each stage of each transhuman phase will be the installation of components that use biological process to derive energy. When that last bit of biological human is finally removed, and good riddance because it was starting to stink up the hardware, there will remain a complete non-biological human that was designed to use organic food as the primary energy source.
Waste of Effort:
As we all know, not every organic molecule is useful to our bodies. If all of the molecules were useful, our throne would have to be resigned to the fact that it was just a porcelein God. Alas, this is not the case, we use it regularly for a throne and only on rare occasions do we pray to that forgiving God.
Surely we recognized that our bodies, through evolution, have predetermined which molecules take a little energy input to get a large energy output and which molecules are just a plain waste of effort. This "waste of effort," my friend, is what we shall call "posthuman crap."
Removing That Smelly Smell:
Now about the smell. If, for some reason, our posthuman selves determine that smelly crap is beneath us then our embedded nanites could expend the extra energy required to sequester the remaining aromatic volatiles and move them to off site storage or possibly convert them to something useful.
Or...
Since it would be a waste of effort to sequester organic volatiles or to convert them to something useful or especially to add the extra step of replacing the crap smell with essence de la rose petals, it would be much more likely that crap smells will continue to smell like crap.
This smelly crap future is not so bad though. Posthumans will be able to specifically filter out unpleasant odor information or reroute automatic response signals in such a way that the famed smell of butt won't be perceived as necessarily good or bad but merely as useful information such as for predicting what a person ate the night before. "Ewww! Did you have a dozen boiled eggs for dinner or what!"
There's Always a Catch:
This posthuman crap thing, however, only works if posthumans decide to continuously occupy their regularly upgraded living quarters (their bodies). All bets are off, if instead the posthumans decide to upload their minds and completely leave the body behind, which, by the way, is a decent segway into my next post...The First Posthuman.
The Dangers of Posting: or CFOSHGB
For those of you who can't read my mind, CFOSHGB is an acronym for Chief Financial Officers Shouldn't Have Gambling Blogs.
Well, after my posthuman sex post from last night, I figure I should take a moment to reflect upon the dangers of posting my mind to the world.
How many of us have given thought to the pervasiveness of the net? Have you ever thought about the permanence of the messages you post? I think I have given it some thought but, then again, maybe not enough.
Four years ago, I posted a conspiracy theory (using another id) to a news website. It was fun and harmless but guess what, it's still on the web floating around. What if, 10 years from now, I decide that I don't want to be a transhumanist anymore. I know, it sounds crazy right now but I have been known to change my mind from time to time. Now let's suppose that instead of thinking about getting my next implant towards posthumanity, I am heavily involved in a conservative Christian organization and was just getting ready to be promoted to preacher or something. My employer, the church, decides to look me up on the 3D Internet. Loweth and beholdeth (that's how churchy types talk) guess what they find my friend. They find out that I am Lucifer incarnate because of my transhuman past and believe it or not, for some strange reason, I don't get the job because God doesn't like the competition. Not only that but rumors start to circulate (because conservative Christians have nothing better to do than circulate rumors of Satan) and I am embarrassed out of my dream job.
So here I am, torn between being who I really am, talking about what I really want to talk about or just quietly pretending to be someone I currently am not.
Since the quiet thing seems kinda boring and isn't a good topic for discussion unless you're Garrison Keillor writing about shy rights, I guess I will need to accept that I cannot be a conservative Christian preacher in the future.
End of story? Not quite.
I also see people post their pictures all over the web. Right now, there is software in beta that can scour the Internet comparing photos of cats (or maybe dogs, I forget which). If you don't get the implications of that, Mr. picture posty pants, I will tell you.
It means that, your awesome girlfriend, Mary Jane, you know the one that talks not the one you smoked, who snapped a photo of the two of you over the weekend can scan that photo and compare your face to every picture on the web looking for a match. I hope for your sake you anticipated her doing that, the sneaky little (bleep), and have prearranged the perfect explanation for why your mug shot turned up on your "secret blog" with a random group of people at a rave that you swore was a late night meeting.
Moral of the story kiddos, don't do anything that you'll regret because there is someone out there making sure you will.
My Next post: Posthuman Shit...It Really Does Smell Like Roses.
Well, after my posthuman sex post from last night, I figure I should take a moment to reflect upon the dangers of posting my mind to the world.
How many of us have given thought to the pervasiveness of the net? Have you ever thought about the permanence of the messages you post? I think I have given it some thought but, then again, maybe not enough.
Four years ago, I posted a conspiracy theory (using another id) to a news website. It was fun and harmless but guess what, it's still on the web floating around. What if, 10 years from now, I decide that I don't want to be a transhumanist anymore. I know, it sounds crazy right now but I have been known to change my mind from time to time. Now let's suppose that instead of thinking about getting my next implant towards posthumanity, I am heavily involved in a conservative Christian organization and was just getting ready to be promoted to preacher or something. My employer, the church, decides to look me up on the 3D Internet. Loweth and beholdeth (that's how churchy types talk) guess what they find my friend. They find out that I am Lucifer incarnate because of my transhuman past and believe it or not, for some strange reason, I don't get the job because God doesn't like the competition. Not only that but rumors start to circulate (because conservative Christians have nothing better to do than circulate rumors of Satan) and I am embarrassed out of my dream job.
So here I am, torn between being who I really am, talking about what I really want to talk about or just quietly pretending to be someone I currently am not.
Since the quiet thing seems kinda boring and isn't a good topic for discussion unless you're Garrison Keillor writing about shy rights, I guess I will need to accept that I cannot be a conservative Christian preacher in the future.
End of story? Not quite.
I also see people post their pictures all over the web. Right now, there is software in beta that can scour the Internet comparing photos of cats (or maybe dogs, I forget which). If you don't get the implications of that, Mr. picture posty pants, I will tell you.
It means that, your awesome girlfriend, Mary Jane, you know the one that talks not the one you smoked, who snapped a photo of the two of you over the weekend can scan that photo and compare your face to every picture on the web looking for a match. I hope for your sake you anticipated her doing that, the sneaky little (bleep), and have prearranged the perfect explanation for why your mug shot turned up on your "secret blog" with a random group of people at a rave that you swore was a late night meeting.
Moral of the story kiddos, don't do anything that you'll regret because there is someone out there making sure you will.
My Next post: Posthuman Shit...It Really Does Smell Like Roses.
20061119
If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...
Why is it that transhumanists present themselves as being arrogant even towards other transhumanists? Individually, do they think they are better than everyone else? Do they think they know more?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that most of us are arrogant. But I do get a strong impression (maybe I'm just being sensitive) that we are plagued by the same ideological prejudices that permeate the rest of the world. I have seen postings in transhuman blogs and message boards criticizing other transhumans for being homosexual, homophobic, a prostitute, a fascist, a racist, Jewish, rich, poor, capitalist, American, European, promoting transhumanism in Second Life, being religious, being christian, being non-christian and more.
If we are truly as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be then it seems we should recognize that nothing productive can come out of these types of postings and should stop. In place of these postings we should focus on reaching out to the non-transhuman world, discuss implications of future technologies and even have some strong disagreements about what it means to be transhuman.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that most of us are arrogant. But I do get a strong impression (maybe I'm just being sensitive) that we are plagued by the same ideological prejudices that permeate the rest of the world. I have seen postings in transhuman blogs and message boards criticizing other transhumans for being homosexual, homophobic, a prostitute, a fascist, a racist, Jewish, rich, poor, capitalist, American, European, promoting transhumanism in Second Life, being religious, being christian, being non-christian and more.
If we are truly as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be then it seems we should recognize that nothing productive can come out of these types of postings and should stop. In place of these postings we should focus on reaching out to the non-transhuman world, discuss implications of future technologies and even have some strong disagreements about what it means to be transhuman.
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