Cyborg Democracy

How far can we anticipate the habitations and ways, the usages and adventures, the mighty employments, the ever increasing knowledge and power of the days to come? No more than a child with its scribbling paper and its box of bricks can picture or model the undertakings of its adult years. Our battle is with cruelties and frustrations, stupid, heavy and hateful things from which we shall escape at last, less like victors conquering a world than like sleepers awaking from a nightmare in the dawn. From any dream, however dismal and horrible, one can escape by realizing that it is a dream; by saying, "I will awake."

The Open Conspiracy is the awaking of mankind from a nightmare, an infantile nightmare, of the struggle for existence and the inevitability of war. The light of day thrusts between our eyelids, and the multitudinous sounds of morning clamour in our ears. A time will come when men will sit with history before them or with some old newspaper before them and ask incredulously, "Was there ever such a world?"

Overview of Transhumanist and Bioconservative Politics
	Libertarian Transhumanists	Democratic Transhumanists	Left-wing BioLuddites	Natural Law BioLuddites
Exemplary Groups	Extropy Institute Longevity Meme	Techprogressives Technoliberationists CybDemites Radical Cyborgs	Society for Genetics and Society Council for Responsible Genetics ETC Group	Center for Bioethics and Culture Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
	World Transhumanist Association Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Betterhumans		Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future
Citizenship	Personhood-based “cyborg citizenship": All self-aware beings with desires and plans for the future should be considered citizens with a right to life		Limited Human-Racism: “Humanness” determines citizenship, but not for embryos	(Religious) Human-Racism: “Humanness” determines citizenship (Deep Ecological) Eco-centrism: Human beings have equal rights with all living things
Humanism vs. Natural Law	Humanism: Human beings are free to determine their own future, guided by prudent reason. There are no obvious natural or divine limits on human aspiration.		Opposition to (Capitalist/ Imperialist/ Patriarchal) Humanism	Deep Ecology/Hubris Taboo: Humanity should be restricted by divine or ecological taboos
Individual Liberty vs. Yuck Factor	Individual liberty trumps yuck factor		Yuck factor trumps individual liberty in germinal choice and biotech, but not in sexuality or abortion	Yuck factor trumps individual liberty
Technological Risks	Resignation: Technology is uncontrollable, government intervention always has bad unforeseen consequences, and risks are manageable without government	Regulation: Risks are manageable with the assistance of democratic oversight and management	Relinquishment: Risks are so enormous and unknowable, and regulatory institutions so flawed, that human enhancement should be banned
	Libertarian Transhumanists	Democratic Transhumanists	Left-wing BioLuddites	Natural Law BioLuddites
The Equality Challenge of Enhancement Technology	Market Access and Legal Equality Enough: If legal equality is guaranteed and enhancement technologies are available in the market, social equality is irrelevant and government should do nothing to create a more equal society	Make Enhancement Universally Accessible: Democracies should work toward social equality, and provide universal access to enhancement technologies	Bans on Technologies as Part of Larger Egalitarian Program: Democracies should work toward social equality and ban enhancement technologies	Tech Bans Necessary to Protect Equality: Equality can be guaranteed by banning enhancement technologies
Procreative Liberty	Procreative Liberty: Trust parents to act in kids best interests, and let them buy germinal choice in the market.	Procreative Liberty, Equality and Beneficence: Trust parents to act in kids’ best interests, stop them if they don’t, give them equal access to germinal choice technology, and encourage them to create children with the best life opportunities.	Limited Procreative Liberty: Reproductive rights, but not extended to germinal choice and reproductive technology.	Procreative Liberty Trumped by Natural Law: Reproductive rights trumped by religious prohibitions or the need for radical population reduction.
Ecological Protection	Free Market Green: The market can solve all ecological problems	TechnoGaian: A combination of judicious regulation and ecologically-oriented technologies can prevent and remediate ecological damage.	Left Ecology: Technologies developed by patriarchal, capitalist systems need to be banned and those systems changed.	Deep Ecology: Humanity should radically restrict itself. (Religious) Dominion Theology: Man has stewardship over Nature.
	Libertarian Transhumanists	Democratic Transhumanists	Left-wing BioLuddites	Natural Law BioLuddites
Structural Unemployment	The Market will Provide: If the government avoids meddling (unemployment insurance, minimum wages, etc.) all workers will find new jobs, even if at lower wages.	Embrace the End of Work: The wealth and leisure created by automation should be shared equitably by all through a basic income guarantee and shorter work week.	Protectionism, Luddism, Public Employment: Attempt to protect existing jobs, and create new ones.	(EcoLuddite) Small is Beautiful: Stop automation and adopt voluntary simplicity.
Globalization	Economic globalization good: Global governance, worker protections, environmental laws, all unnecessary	Economic globalization must be accompanied by political globalization: Economic globalization good so long as it is accompanied by worker rights and protections, environmental laws, and global democratic governance of capital flows.		(EcoLuddite) Globalization should be stopped: Return to local self-reliance and political sovereignity (Religious) Global bans on enhancement tech Global treaties to ban cloning and enhancement, but no other global governance

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THE OPEN CONSPIRACY - H.G. WELLS

Overview of Transhumanist and Bioconservative Politics