Well, I took the transhumanist test today, and the results were a little surprising.
You Score as a Transhumanist-Biotech
Transhumanists believe that humanity can and should strive to attain higher levels of physical, mental, and social achievement through the use of technology. They seek to extend human capabilities and improve the human condition through technology- supporting the quest for immortality, the conquering of death and disease, the amplification of human intelligence, and the capabilities of the human body. Transhumanists recognize that over time and with technological advancements, man will realize new possibilities for society and human nature and achieve a posthuman condition (becoming more than human). Societal change is an important consequence of technological progress. Because of this passionate trust in technological advancement, transhumanists generally see all technologies, as long as they don't jeopardize the non-corporeal consciousness of a person, as being beneficial both to society and to the happiness and advancement of the person. Transhumanists see benefit not only in technologies that address medical necessities, but also aesthetic or recreational demands. They support advances in cybernetics, genetic engineering in clinical settings, embryo design, and other technologies that allow individuals to take control of their biology, and the human species to take control of evolution. Transhumanists can be either hard-technology oriented--more inclined to add microchips and machines to their lifestyle--or bio-technology oriented--preferring the softer, more natural advancements and modifications that are made available. [ See All Results ]
Your Results
You scored as a TB 72.8% of people also scored as TB
Other Results 7.4% of people scored as BC 1.5% of people scored as BL 0% of people scored as LU 0.5% of people scored as TC 17.7% of people scored as TP
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Interestingly, I don't really consider myself a transhumanist, mostly because I consider a lot of the transhumanist literature to be boosterism on the level of the atomic car. My mantra regarding the future may well be "it will never be as easy as it looks". On the other hand, what this test really measures is one's willingness to accept a future where we modify ourselves to be better than we were, and in that respect I'm perfectly willing to embrace either cybernetics or biotech. Mechanical or biotech implants to correct things like my poor memory, balance and eyesight? Something to make me live an extra century or two? OK, I'd be on that. I may not think that the future is going to be a Singularity, but I also won't accept that it will be a tragedy. If anything, I suppose i tend toward believing in James Nicoll's "Nightmarish Future of Prosperity". If that makes me a transhumanist, so be it.
The quiz reduces a lot of complex issues to yes/no questions. For a lot of them, my answer is “yes, after extensive testing to verify that they’ve got the bugs out of it” or “just make sure that embryos don’t get two copies of a nasty recessive, since we don’t yet know the advantages of having just one copy”. So sure, I qualify with Transhumanist-Biotech, but there should be a third axis on the graph of “devote significant quality assurance resources and don’t make irreversible changes until you understand something extremely well”.
I agree completely. All of my answers would have been qualified with "if it's shown to be reasonably safe".
There's a lot of things to dislike about that test, even aside from the formatting issues. I have to wonder just how many "no" responses you have to put into the test to NOT be listed as a fervent bio-transhumanist.
Let's just hope they don't put the same people on quality assurance for the neuralwear that they did on this test. I don't like the idea of a literal "Blue Screen of Death".
Have you read Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End? That near-future scenario has contact lens heads-up displays and gesture inputs, and I think that’s a lot more likely than getting chips in our heads that require expensive neurosurgery and then worrying about how out-of-date our implants are compared to the latest technology.
Interesting, no I haven't read that, and I think I will now, in the near future. those devices remind me of the devices in Brin's "Earth", where they were also regarded as more practical than neurological implants.
Then again, I have to admit one one of the deal-breakers for the Cyberpunk 2020 game was the idea of getting neural implants at the local mall. Yeah, I'm SO gonna let some kid who could have been working at Wallymart monkey with my brain.
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roseembolism) wrote2008-03-24 03:07 pm
Transhumanists believe that humanity can and should strive to attain higher levels of physical, mental, and social achievement through the use of technology. They seek to extend human capabilities and improve the human condition through technology- supporting the quest for immortality, the conquering of death and disease, the amplification of human intelligence, and the capabilities of the human body. Transhumanists recognize that over time and with technological advancements, man will realize new possibilities for society and human nature and achieve a posthuman condition (becoming more than human). Societal change is an important consequence of technological progress. Because of this passionate trust in technological advancement, transhumanists generally see all technologies, as long as they don't jeopardize the non-corporeal consciousness of a person, as being beneficial both to society and to the happiness and advancement of the person. Transhumanists see benefit not only in technologies that address medical necessities, but also aesthetic or recreational demands. They support advances in cybernetics, genetic engineering in clinical settings, embryo design, and other technologies that allow individuals to take control of their biology, and the human species to take control of evolution. Transhumanists can be either hard-technology oriented--more inclined to add microchips and machines to their lifestyle--or bio-technology oriented--preferring the softer, more natural advancements and modifications that are made available. [ See All Results ] 
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There's a lot of things to dislike about that test, even aside from the formatting issues. I have to wonder just how many "no" responses you have to put into the test to NOT be listed as a fervent bio-transhumanist.
Let's just hope they don't put the same people on quality assurance for the neuralwear that they did on this test. I don't like the idea of a literal "Blue Screen of Death".
no subject
no subject
Then again, I have to admit one one of the deal-breakers for the Cyberpunk 2020 game was the idea of getting neural implants at the local mall. Yeah, I'm SO gonna let some kid who could have been working at Wallymart monkey with my brain.