Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Stupidest Thing I've Read Today

From one of the Douthat's comment threads, this (I know, fish, barrel, etc.):
Transhumanism . . . is an abominable idea no matter how few its adherents or how unlikely the possibility of attaining it. The ultimate thing that's wrong about it is that it seeks to make us absolute masters of our own destiny. It seeks to create a world without pain, suffering, or death. I don't think that human beings can nor should seek to enjoy such a world; there is something to be said for acceptance of one's limitations and for what fate brings us, rather than trying to exert total control over life. Simone Weil said that the ultimate acts of submission to God, lie in the acceptance of hard labor, suffering and death. Modern society, through capitalist economics and 'transhumanist' ethics, seeks to do away with all three.
How about this: Hector Dauphin-Gloire and his ideological compatriots can have a society where pain, suffering, and death feature prominently, and the rest of us can pursue transhumanist ends to avoid these things. The problem is not that people have these bizarre ideas about the necessity of suffering for development of virtue, it's that they seek to make the rest of us "virtuous" by causing us to suffer and die.
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