A Problem of Reference
"The primitive thinking of the supernaturally inclined amounts to what his psychiatric colleagues call a problem, or an idea, of reference. An excess of the subjective, the ordering of the world in line with your needs, an inability to contemplate your own unimportance."
-Ian McEwan in Saturday
This quote nicely sums up the fundamental problem that all transhumanists suffer from. They are incapable of thinking that mankind is merely an evolutionary fluke. They need to believe that the whole universe is set up for us and that our technology is part of some grand cosmic scheme. They are taking their own subjective opinions about the importance of intelligence in the universe as objective fact.
Einstein once said that: "the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible." I agree. How can it be that we are products of the universe yet we can ask questions about it. Surely, we must be special somehow. However, this belief in specialness is a matter of faith since it can't be proven that we were inevitable.
In the entires to follow, I will try to argue against the prophets of inevitability, showing that there is no way you can prove scientifically that our species was predestined to evolve. That is, assuming I don't get too lazy.
Stay tuned...
-Ian McEwan in Saturday
This quote nicely sums up the fundamental problem that all transhumanists suffer from. They are incapable of thinking that mankind is merely an evolutionary fluke. They need to believe that the whole universe is set up for us and that our technology is part of some grand cosmic scheme. They are taking their own subjective opinions about the importance of intelligence in the universe as objective fact.
Einstein once said that: "the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible." I agree. How can it be that we are products of the universe yet we can ask questions about it. Surely, we must be special somehow. However, this belief in specialness is a matter of faith since it can't be proven that we were inevitable.
In the entires to follow, I will try to argue against the prophets of inevitability, showing that there is no way you can prove scientifically that our species was predestined to evolve. That is, assuming I don't get too lazy.
Stay tuned...
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