You only live once: a reframing of working towards posthumanity

John_Maxwell

Let's say you recently purchased a new computer game. Reviewers like the game, but they say that the game itself pales in comparison to a massive, difficult-to-access secret area near the end. Bizarrely, this secret area contains over 90% of the content in the game. It's also rumored to be a lot better designed.

If you're like most gamers, you'll probably play through the game normally a few times, and go for the secret area on your second or third try. But what if the game was real life, and you died as soon as your first try ended?

Edit for clarifying points:

Posthumanity is definitely an area within the game. It's not prohibited by the laws of physics. The relevant questions are how difficult it would be to achieve and whether it would be enough fun to be worth the effort.
The reframing is meant to deal with the issue that humans tend to be bad at thinking about unprecedented events (black swans).
But the reframing is not perfect. For example, it ignores the fact that posthumanity may be achieved without your help. It also ignores the fact that by achieving posthumanity, you are helping more people than just yourself.
If no effective plan for achieving posthumanity exists, you'll have to think of one one in order to access the proverbial secret area. This isn't about any specific plan.

Edit for clarifying points:

Posthumanity is definitely an area within the game. It's not prohibited by the laws of physics. The relevant questions are how difficult it would be to achieve and whether it would be enough fun to be worth the effort.
The reframing is meant to deal with the issue that humans tend to be bad at thinking about unprecedented events (black swans).
But the reframing is not perfect. For example, it ignores the fact that posthumanity may be achieved without your help. It also ignores the fact that by achieving posthumanity, you are helping more people than just yourself.
If no effective plan for achieving posthumanity exists, you'll have to think of one one in order to access the proverbial secret area. This isn't about any specific plan.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that there is an attitude here that something is inferior because it is short.

It's a sketch of an analogy to make transhuman/posthuman activism more appealing to a small subset of the population: gamers who don't yet think it sounds pretty nifty. It seems more open thready than discussiony to me.

4JoshuaZ14y

Short is not the only issue here. The issue is that is short and appears to be potentially inchoate.

8Shmi14y

Personally, I like posts that are short and to the point. It tell me that the poster has respect for the readers and took time to express his or her ideas clearly and concisely. I often upvote such posts just for style.

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You only live once: a reframing of working towards posthumanity

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You only live once: a reframing of working towards posthumanity

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