Transhumanism
From Order of Cosmic Engineers
Some one-line definitions of Transhumanism, by Peer Infinity:
"Basically, a transhumanist is someone who is generally in favor of using technology to go beyond the current limitations of human biology"
"A transhumanist is basically a humanist who also takes into account the possibility that humanity will continue to evolve"
"To me, transhumanism is basically being aware of the changes that are about to happen, and being able to think about them rationally, rather than choosing not to think about them at all just because they sound scary at first"
Another interesting definition I've heard is "transhumanism is common sense, carried to its logical conclusion"
Giulio Perhaps's favorite definition of transhumanism, copied from the slide on the wall of the SL-Transhumanists HQ:
The basic tenet of classical Humanist thinking is that concrete thinking and feeling persons are more important than abstract, "artificial" ethical constructs.
Extrapolating from current scientific and technological trends, we can see that our species may soon develop the capability to control its own evolution, including modifying itself in fundamental ways.
Such modifications may range from life extension and cognitive enhancement (mid term), to becoming non-mortal radically enhanced software entities (long term).
Transhumanists will welcome such changes as long as they result in a better life for all persons directly concerned, where "person" is defined as "thinking and feeling entity".
That's it. Not the will of --insert your favorite supreme being here-- ? Against --insert your favorite abstract principle here-- ? Too bad. Concrete thinking and feeling persons are more important than abstract, "artificial" ethical constructs.
See http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/?p=561 for 7 more definitions of transhumanism.
Here are a few more pages about transhumanism on this Wiki:
