That’s going to be my new quick argument for transhumanism. “Listen to this depressing European synthpop! Do you really want the future to be like that??”
(Incidentally, a recent comment on the video states: “Ronan explained at the San Antonio show and San Diego show that this song was about living forever. That living forever was more of a torment than a gift.” Sounded like the opposite to me — a song about how much human extinction would suck. But no, everything’s gotta be about how the purposeless evolutionary status quo is coincidentally exactly what we should want...)
I agree with your interpretation of the song, and to back it up, here’s the chorus of “The Farthest Star” (another song by the same band).
We possess the power, if this should start to fall apart,
To mend divides, to change the world, to reach the farthest star.
If we should stay silent, if fear should win our hearts,
Our light will have long diminished before it reaches the farthest star.
This time, the message is pretty clear: we should aspire to overcome both our differences and our limitations, to avoid extinction and to expand throughout the universe. I suppose it doesn’t say anything about immortality, but otherwise it seems to match transhumanist philosophy.
Streamline, from their newest album, also seems fairly transhumanist, and in a more hopeful way than most of their songs.
Also, by the unholy power of confirmation bias, I hereby declare that Testament is about humanity’s recklessness and apathy in the face of existential risks, and Tomorrow Never Comes is about our final desperate and ultimately futile efforts to stave off doomsday after having waited too long to act.
Since the above comment of mine was posted, I actually became a big fan of VNV Nation (thanks Eliezer! :P) and downloaded the rest of their discography. “The Farthest Star” is definitely a good one. Though I do remember from one live recording of “Further” that Ronan did in fact say that it’s about living forever, but given the lyrics, it sounds more like it’s about what it would be like for one or two people living forever while the rest of humanity dies, and honestly that probably would suck.
There’s a meaning that death gives to life, but it’s not all that important, and it’s not all that happy either.
That’s going to be my new quick argument for transhumanism. “Listen to this depressing European synthpop! Do you really want the future to be like that??”
(Incidentally, a recent comment on the video states: “Ronan explained at the San Antonio show and San Diego show that this song was about living forever. That living forever was more of a torment than a gift.” Sounded like the opposite to me — a song about how much human extinction would suck. But no, everything’s gotta be about how the purposeless evolutionary status quo is coincidentally exactly what we should want...)
I agree with your interpretation of the song, and to back it up, here’s the chorus of “The Farthest Star” (another song by the same band).
This time, the message is pretty clear: we should aspire to overcome both our differences and our limitations, to avoid extinction and to expand throughout the universe. I suppose it doesn’t say anything about immortality, but otherwise it seems to match transhumanist philosophy.
Streamline, from their newest album, also seems fairly transhumanist, and in a more hopeful way than most of their songs.
Also, by the unholy power of confirmation bias, I hereby declare that Testament is about humanity’s recklessness and apathy in the face of existential risks, and Tomorrow Never Comes is about our final desperate and ultimately futile efforts to stave off doomsday after having waited too long to act.
Since the above comment of mine was posted, I actually became a big fan of VNV Nation (thanks Eliezer! :P) and downloaded the rest of their discography. “The Farthest Star” is definitely a good one. Though I do remember from one live recording of “Further” that Ronan did in fact say that it’s about living forever, but given the lyrics, it sounds more like it’s about what it would be like for one or two people living forever while the rest of humanity dies, and honestly that probably would suck.