Nigel takes a pop at Aubrey

In “Preserving Humanity - and Technology?”, Nigel Cameron’s response to Aubrey de Grey’s essay “Life Span Extension Research and Public Debate: Societal Considerations” by Aubrey D.N.J de Grey.

Unlike Kass and Fukuyama, Nigel finds it hard to argue against healthy life extension. So he tries to drive a wedge between the longevity dividend advocates and H+/SENS-ists:

..perhaps all this agitprop will get the attention of policymakers, so that the implications of emerging technologies can claim the place they deserve in our public attention. I think though it is more likely that transhumans and technophobes will feed on each other, a resonance that will scare off those in the middle - and thereby raise the risk involved not simply in technological investment but in serious public discussion of emerging technologies and their implications.

Nigel also gives Aubrey his favorite epithet for us H+ types: “pugilistic.”

Were I uncharitable I might suggest that de Grey’s worst enemy is not death, but his style, which is pugilistic,

I also received that judgment from Nigel.

Abstract: Aubrey de Grey’s enthusiasm may or may not be infectious, but it is certainly palpable. And it adds a dimension to the discussion the priority that should be given to life-extension/anti-ageing research of which he seems to be unaware. For on the cusp of developments in emerging technologies we find ourselves button-holed by enthusiasts whose ``transhumanist” visions importunately press upon us the most radical understanding of their implications. My suspicion is that the transhumanist mini-insurgency is partly responsible for the general failure of the policy establishment to summon up the courage and vision to address the implications of emerging technologies at all. The insurgents’ effort at ``branding” these technologies as transhumanist (like that of the Raelian flying-saucer cult, a decade ago, to claim cloning as their own) does no favors to the technology. The irony is that de Grey and his fellow-visionaries, far from generating consensus enthusiasm for emerging technology applications, are making them too hot to handle.

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