Some thoughts on transhumanism and rationality.
Category Archives: Philosophy
The First Woman To Be Raped In Space
As Glenn notes, this seems to be gender feminism’s major contribution to spaceflight.
I ruffled some feathers this weekend at Space Access by having the temerity to point out that there will be some people who will oppose our expansion into space, because they don’t trust us to do it “right,” and with “social justice.” So much will they oppose it that they may even get violent about it. They do, after all, call themselves “warriors,” and they use a lot of eliminationist rhetoric, like “Smash patriarchy.” I got an email or two about it.
My quick take: Saying that I am “picking a fight” with these people is like saying that the New York Times was picking a fight with the Japanese by reporting that they had bombed Pearl Harbor. As I noted in my talk, they went after the gamers, and the SF community. They’re already on their way to go after the space settlers, as the above linked piece indicates.
I’ll have a longer take at Ricochet or PJMedia.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sort of related: Why Joss Whedon left Twitter.
[Update a while later]
Here’s one hot off the press (Monday) from D. N. Lee (the Scientific American blogger whose tweet I highlighted in my talk). This is much more mild than the tweet, but it gives you an idea of what we’re up against.
Libertarians
…are the WEIRDest people in the world.
Personhood For Non-Humans
Elizabeth Price Foley is appalled at some recent court decisions, and the trend.
I’ve got mixed feelings on this. I agree that they shouldn’t be given full human rights, but I do think we should make distinctions as a function of intelligence, and perhaps even recognize some degree of moral agency (e.g., dolphins). It also raises the issue of how we would treat extraterrestrials as a function of those things.
Life On Mars
This is refreshing. A scientist who thinks it may be there now, and has no problems with terraforming. Usually such people are concerned about the ethics.
Jewish Conservatism
Some thoughts from David Goldman.
[Saturday-afternoon update]
American Jewry’s moment of decision:
During the next two months, Obama will be focused on closing his deal with Iran, and Clinton will be avidly seeking to lock up the Democratic nomination for president by building an impregnable fortress of campaign funds. If the American Jewish community uses this critical period to leverage Clinton’s financial requirements to convince her to oppose Obama’s deal that paves the way for a nuclear armed Iran, then they will reassert their relevance in American politics and they will restore support for Israel to its pre-Obama position as a bipartisan position.
If they fail to do so, then Obama’s bid to transform Israel into a partisan issue will succeed. If a Republican wins the White House in 2016, he will face an anti-Israel Democratic opposition. And if Clinton wins the White House, she will have no reason to support Israel.
I’d still like to see the video of the Khalidi birthday party.
[Bumped]
[Sunday-morning update]
In Syria there are real massacres of Palestinians. But where are the Muslim mobs and their European useful idiots? Where are the drones chanting in the streets of Paris? Where are the thousands of tweets we saw in 2014? They don’t exist because Israel was not involved, which reveals the utter hypocrisy and malevolence behind the execrable anti-Jewish and anti-Israel campaign.
Shelley Neese, who is Vice President of a Christian Zionist website called “The Jerusalem Connection”, has produced a remarkable music video “There is a Storm Coming”,about the rise of anti-Jewish prejudice and bigotry.
She compares it to the horrors of seventy years ago. She also warns the French Jewish community that time is short and their future lies in the ancestral and biblical Jewish homeland: Israel.
She was assisted by Andrew McKain, a talented musician and rapper whose hard-hitting lyrics should particularly appeal to young people who so desperately need to learn the past and what the present may foretell.
They should know how the totalitarian movements defeated in the 20th century have mutated and how the Islamo-Nazis and today’s far left are making common cause to the same end as their predecessors — the destruction of the Jews and of freedom worldwide.
When they said “Never again,” they had their fingers crossed behind their backs.
Tech Titans And Life Extension
Here’s a good overview of what Google, Thiel and others are doing. I wish they’d stop calling it “immortality,” though. That’s not the goal, and if it were, it would be unrealistic. It’s just indefinite lifespan. As I often notes, expansion into space and extended lifespan go hand in hand.
[Update a while later]
Sorry, link was missing. Fixed now.
Death In Space
The ethics of dealing with astronauts’ bodies.
That’s not an issue I address in the book. Maybe I should.
Peter Thiel
A conversation with Tyler Cowen, on the future of innovation, life extension and God.
Anti-Discrimination Laws
The libertarian position.
I’m amused/appalled at the people who cannot make a distinction of what is immoral/wrong and what should be illegal. Particularly when it comes from the same people who whine about how they oppose “legislating morality.” They’re not opposed to it at all, they just want to legislate their morality.