In looking back over my posting history here on Existence is Wonderful, it is very interesting to see how my own attitudes have shifted over time. There are still some fundamental principles I adhere to: e.g., “Life is a good thing”, and “All different kinds of people are valuable”, but lately I’ve been coming to terms with some of the “affiliation uneasiness” that has been bothering me in the background throughout my public writing endeavors so far.

As of now, I’m still OK with using the term “transhumanism” to describe some of my take on technosocial development. I do believe that radical longevity is a great goal (and one that I will continue to advocate fiercely for). I find talking about robots and cyborgs, etc., to be fascinating and a lot of fun. I’m all for continuing the human process of shaping our environment (with sustainability in mind) to suit our needs and creative energies, and for enabling consensual “augmentation” and modification without regard for unexamined, parochial notions of what is “natural”.

But here’s the thing: I am massively social-libertarian when it comes to the issue of morphological freedom — one of the things that strikes me as tremendously important in any movement that wants to “push” for positive outcomes in society involving the individual’s rights to control his/her own form and function is the notion that we have to be radically tolerant of people who choose forms and functions that we ourselves would not. Which includes forms and functions that we (as in, any one of us) might even find bizarre or aesthetically displeasing.

I’m finding myself increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of being associated with people who can’t understand how power relationships work, and who think that disability activism is “extremism” despite the wealth of good, cogent disability literature out there (which has much in common with transhumanist-themed morphological freedom literature).

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean I’m getting annoyed at “transhumanists”, per se — I in fact think that many emerging mainstream attitudes are quite akin to early eugenic attitudes (e.g., the drive toward prenatal testing causing a shift away from trying to help keep all kinds of children alive once they are born), and that in the mainstream, these attitudes are probably more pernicious and powerful due to being examined less frequently and less consciously than in culturally critical and speculative movements.

I guess I’m just getting annoyed with how so much has been written on the nature of power dynamics, on the real reasons behind the need for disability activism (e.g., so that vulnerable populations are not continually depersonalized, and so that more people understand the nature of interdependence in society), and on similar stuff, but how some people still don’t seem to be able to get past the status quo. I want to help shape a future that is truly “better” than the present, as opposed to just an extreme, exaggerated version of current fashion.

I don’t know if this is even possible, given the complexity of the tasks at hand, but I do get the sense that a better future (one in which people enjoy increased liberty, tolerance, and safety from environmental and other risks) isn’t going to happen through assuming too much about what forms and functionalities are “acceptable” for the future to contain.

Wait, There's More!

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Date posted : October 17th, 2007 by AnneC Last Modified : October 17th, 2007 / Filed under : Feeds / Report a Concern Navigate : Previous post / Next post / Top of Page
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