The entire post above is actually a statement that you value the survival of our species instrumentally, not intrinsically. If it were an intrinsic value for you, then contemplating any future in which humanity becomes smarter and happier and eventually leaves behind the old bug-riddled bodies we started with, should fill you with indescribable horror. And in my experience, very few people feel that way, and many of those who do (i.e. Leon Kass) do so as an outgrowth of a really strong signaling process.
I don’t object to biological augmentations, and I’m particularly fond of the idea of radical life-extension. Having our bodies tweaked, new features added and old bugs patched, that would be fine by me. Kidneys that don’t produce stones, but otherwise meet or exceed the original spec? Sign me up!
If some sort of posthumans emerged and decided to take care of humans in a manner analogous to present-day humans taking care of chimps in zoos, that might be weird, but having someone incomprehensibly intelligent and powerful looking out for my interests would be preferable to a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
If, on the other hand, a posthuman appears as a wheel of fire, explains that it’s smarter and happier than I can possibly imagine and further that any demographic which could produce individuals psychologically equivalent to me is a waste of valuable mass, so I need to be disassembled now, that’s where the indescribable horror kicks in. Under those circumstances, I would do everything I could do to keep being, or set up some possibility of coming back, and it wouldn’t be enough.
You’re right. Describing that value as intrinsic was an error in terminology on my part.
The entire post above is actually a statement that you value the survival of our species instrumentally, not intrinsically. If it were an intrinsic value for you, then contemplating any future in which humanity becomes smarter and happier and eventually leaves behind the old bug-riddled bodies we started with, should fill you with indescribable horror. And in my experience, very few people feel that way, and many of those who do (i.e. Leon Kass) do so as an outgrowth of a really strong signaling process.
I don’t object to biological augmentations, and I’m particularly fond of the idea of radical life-extension. Having our bodies tweaked, new features added and old bugs patched, that would be fine by me. Kidneys that don’t produce stones, but otherwise meet or exceed the original spec? Sign me up!
If some sort of posthumans emerged and decided to take care of humans in a manner analogous to present-day humans taking care of chimps in zoos, that might be weird, but having someone incomprehensibly intelligent and powerful looking out for my interests would be preferable to a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
If, on the other hand, a posthuman appears as a wheel of fire, explains that it’s smarter and happier than I can possibly imagine and further that any demographic which could produce individuals psychologically equivalent to me is a waste of valuable mass, so I need to be disassembled now, that’s where the indescribable horror kicks in. Under those circumstances, I would do everything I could do to keep being, or set up some possibility of coming back, and it wouldn’t be enough.
You’re right. Describing that value as intrinsic was an error in terminology on my part.