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baiter comments on Rationality Quotes March 2012 - Less Wrong
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-- Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Joseph Priestley, 8 Feb 1780
We've made really decent progress in only two hundred and thirty-odd years. We're ahead of schedule.
One of the first transhumanists?
The hard core of transhumanism goes back to at least the Middle Ages, possibly sooner.
Interesting. The particular philosophers you have in mind?
Primarily, I had the Arabic-speaking philosophical alchemists in mind, but there are others. If there is significant interest, then I will elaborate further.
Okay, 2 comments and 3 upvotes is good enough for a quick comment but not a discussion post.
By the "hard core of transhumanism" I mean the belief that humans could use reason to obtain knowledge of the natural world that we can use in order to develop technologies that will allow us to cure sickness, eliminate the need to labor, and extend our lifespans to greater-than-human levels and that we should do these things.
During the Islamic Golden Age, many thinkers combined Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism with knowledge from indigenous craft traditions into a form of alchemy that was refined using logic and laboratory experimentation (Jābir ibn Hayyān is probably the most famous of these thinkers). These philosophers and technologists believed that their theoretical system would allow them to perform transmutation of matter (turn one element into another) unlocking the ability to create almost any "machine" or medicine imaginable. This was thought to allow them to create al ixir (elixir) of Al Khidr fame which, in principle, could extend human life indefinitely and cure any kind of disease. Also of great interest was the attainment of takwin, which is artificial, laboratory-created "life" (even including the intelligent kind). It was hoped (by some) that these artificial creations (called a homunculus by Latin speakers and analogous to the Jewish golem) could do the work of humans the way angels do Allah's work. Not only could these AIs do our work for us, they could continue our scientific enterprise. According to William Newman, these AIs or robots "...of the pseudo-Plato and Jabir traditions could not only talk - it could reveal the secrets of nature." Sound familiar?
Was there any speculation about the Friendly takwin problem?
Not that I know of, but you would think they would have since they were familiar with how badly you could end up screwing yourself dealing with Jinn even though they would do exactly what you tell them to (literally). There are a great many Arabic texts that historians of science have yet to take a look at. Who knows, maybe we'll luck out and find the solution to the FAI problem in some library in Turkey.
Might also have been an attitude like a lot of people have today, along the lines of :
Interested.
I'm interested as well.
Put me down as "interested".
Does Imitation of Christ count as transhumanism, or is too ideologically distinct?
I would say no, because their isn't enough emphasis on technology as the means of achieving post-humanity.
"Be perfect, like an FAI is perfect." -- Jesus
Benjamin Franklin sure knew how to use the caps. I miss the old days.
The Germans of his day put him to shame.
In fact they still do.