1. A brief note about meeting with fellow life-extensionists and Methuselah Foundation folks last Saturday.
2. A discussion of personhood, and my interpretation of the idea that not all persons are human, and not all humans are persons. This particular area of discussion, at least for me, illustrates the lack of an Official Transhumanist Party Line—I am not as much of a utilitarian ethicist as some are (as in, I am less comfortable with euthanasia than some might be), and that’s okay, because we all have different minds and different perspectives when it comes to certain issues.
I think people need to keep asking the question, “How do you KNOW this person isn’t really self-aware?”—the ability to ask that question will definitely be relevant when looking to recognize all kinds of potential minds. It is sometimes difficult to even ask this question without getting weirdly simplistic responses from people, which I find puzzling. Self-awareness requires a brain (at least in humans) that is producing some kind of electrical activity and that hasn’t necrotized or been put through a blender, but beyond that, I don’t know that neuroscience has been able to really zero in on the “self-awareness module” quite yet.
I am not a fan of “ideologies” in general—rather, I prefer to analyze situations on a more individual basis, which results in my principles not necessarily being easy to predict if you only know one or two of my opinions.
I read something earlier this week that really resonated with me in this regard—basically, the idea that by subscribing too strongly to a pre-packaged ideology, you can actually cut yourself off from reality in some respects. Ideas are great, but ideologies too frequently fall into the category of “cognitive constraint”. And my brain doesn’t really seem wired for that kind of thing anyway; philosophy is my salad bar, not my TV dinner.
3. Some comments on the convergence between disability rights and ideas like cryonics and life extension in general—all these factors concern vulnerable populations, after all.
4. How cryonics might affect critical care decisions
5. Reading of an older entry that I think at least partially answers the question, “What’s so great about life, anyway?” in my case.
Also, I recently started a cafepress store. I’m just sharing this in case anyone is interested—I just did it for fun and am not making any money off it, but I plan to create some additional designs in the future that some of the readership here might like. Though I realize that “natural” is not synonymous with “good”, I do agree with the sentiment that “Technology is Natural”—so I put it on a t-shirt.
Finally, below is my Second Life avatar as of last night; I want those wings!
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