focusattackdashcancel asked: Hey, just curious as to what you think about Raymond Kurzweil, Aubrey DeGrey and the whole transhumanist clique that is behind ideas like the singularity and living forever. Any thoughts or opinions as to wether theres any meat to that kind of thinking?
I think it’s horrific to eliminate ageing, it would only be bad. I think the idea of genetically selecting or modifying humans would be a terrible idea. We can’t comfortably assume that we’ll never need the characteristics that evolution has selected into us; the world is not predictable and if we change who we are then we won’t be suited to live in it and deal with what comes to us.
The only time I might approve of genetic modification would be in the case of a permanent establishment of an isolated Martian population. That may in fact be useful. In any other case, though, I think it’s appalling.
