Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

What If You’re Not Built for True Philosophy, Actual Policy, or Real Literature? Try Futurism!

Robot Cultist Kyle McCuttnink makes the urgently needed case that just because Neanderthals are not built to thrive in the modern world is no argument against cloning them anyway, since neither were modern humans built to thrive in the modern world.

I think it matters that people aren’t built for anything, as it happens, aren’t built by anyone at all for anything at all, not even by Very Serious futurologists who confuse science and science fiction, and so I think it is better not to let futuologists who want to talk about building and designing “better humans” say “built for” when they actually mean “adapted for.” I also think it matters that there are no Neanderthals who are going to be cloned no matter how this argument plays out among the White Guys of the Future. I think there are far better arguments to have in a world with so many real problems at hand, but I also think there are better ways to explore topics like cloning Neanderthals than having arguments with people pretending they are philosophers or policy wonks when they are just fanboys without the talent to write real science fiction.

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