WildcatThu, Oct 23, 2008 "Transhumanists believe in the technological transcendence of our biological limitations, most obviously the limitation of life span. The death of more than 100,000 people a day is, they say, a catastrophe that will, soon, be preventable. Thinkers like Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama and Bill McKibben have attacked this idea, arguing, in essence, that death is an essential aspect of our humanity. For transhumanism's response to this see Joe Quirk's heavy irony on page 41 of H+. What I like about transhumanists is their naked, unapologetic radicalism. Like Mustapha Mond debating with the Savage in Brave New World, they simply ask, what's so great about human life as it now is? If, for example, human immortality makes all your art meaningless, so be it, Shakespeare was all predicated on suffering we no longer have to endure. What I don't like about transhumanists is the fact that they simply refuse to understand certain arguments of their opponents - like the idea, best advanced by Bernard Williams, about boredom not with the things of the world but with oneself, or, as Roger Scruton puts, the soul grows tired of inhabiting the body."
This is an excerpt from a blog post that tries to undermine the very idea of transhumanist ideals concerning immortality.
Of course, to my eyes that is sheer ignorance concerning what immortality actually implies, specifically the ideation of boredom as an inherent human trait, though I am not a self-described transhumanist, I appreciate the fact that the more intelligence prevails the very concept of time takes on a new dimension of existential interest+pleasure.
The multidimensionality of the multiverse, allows an infinity of interest to be generated, transforming the mind in the process. such a mind is as far from boredom as can possibly be, moreover the very act of consciously designing the reality of our aware universal existence is in itself an ever unfolding process, thereby eliminating the fears and anxieties of the origination of our brains.
In such circumstances I cannot possibly understand what is meant by "boredom with oneself".
"Transhumanists believe in the technological transcendence of our biological limitations, most obviously the limitation of life span. The death of more than 100,000 people a day is, they say, a catastrophe that will, soon, be preventable. Thinkers like Leon Kass, Francis Fukuyama and Bill McKibben have attacked this idea, arguing, in essence, that death is an essential aspect of our humanity. For transhumanism's response to this see Joe Quirk's heavy irony on page 41 of H+. What I like about transhumanists is their naked, unapologetic radicalism. Like Mustapha Mond debating with the Savage in Brave New World, they simply ask, what's so great about human life as it now is? If, for example, human immortality makes all your art meaningless, so be it, Shakespeare was all predicated on suffering we no longer have to endure. What I don't like about transhumanists is the fact that they simply refuse to understand certain arguments of their opponents - like the idea, best advanced by Bernard Williams, about boredom not with the things of the world but with oneself, or, as Roger Scruton puts, the soul grows tired of inhabiting the body."
This is an excerpt from a blog post that tries to undermine the very idea of transhumanist ideals concerning immortality.
Of course, to my eyes that is sheer ignorance concerning what immortality actually implies, specifically the ideation of boredom as an inherent human trait, though I am not a self-described transhumanist, I appreciate the fact that the more intelligence prevails the very concept of time takes on a new dimension of existential interest+pleasure.
The multidimensionality of the multiverse, allows an infinity of interest to be generated, transforming the mind in the process. such a mind is as far from boredom as can possibly be, moreover the very act of consciously designing the reality of our aware universal existence is in itself an ever unfolding process, thereby eliminating the fears and anxieties of the origination of our brains.
In such circumstances I cannot possibly understand what is meant by "boredom with oneself".