"John C. Wright, who wrote the heavily transhumanist The Golden Age, had some kind of temporal lobe epileptic fit and became a Christian. There's a once-helpful soul, now lost to us."
this seems needlessly harsh. as you've pointed out in the past, the world's biggest idiot/liar saying the sun is shining, does not necesarily mean its dark out. the fictional evidence fallacy notwithstanding, if Mr. Wright's novels have useful things to say about transhumanism or the future in general, they should be apreciated for that. the fact the author is born-again shouldnt mean we throw his work on the bonfire.
its unfair to caricaturize libertarians as ultra-social-darwinists saying "stupid ppl who accidently kill themselves DESERVED it". if that quote was ever literally uttered, I would tend to think it was out of exasperation at the opposing viewpoint that govt has a paramount responsibility to save its citizens from themselves to the point of ludicrous pandering.
this reminds me distinctly of an analogy posited by prof Frank Tipler in his book about the Omega Point. Imagine you went back in time to 1000AD and found the smartest man in europe. You explain to him the technology available in 2008, but none of the culture. Then you ask him what he thinks early 21st century civilization spends its time on. "Every city would build mile high cathedrals." because in his culture the main social task was building the biggest possible cathedral w the material and techniques available. In 2008, if we wanted to devote our technology and resources to building 5000ft tall cathedrals in every metropolis, we could. It would be exceedingly expensive, but so were the medeival cathedrals, relatively. but the point is we COULD do it, but of course that would never occur to us as a good use of resources. so likewise we should not assume our own priorities on to a post-singularity civilization or even a single AI.
I see no problem letting altruism become obsolete.