This is the practicality of the thought coming out of high transhumanism? Let's dismantle a planet in 25 to 50 years?

" The backlash was slower to appear in popular fiction, but was more emphatic. From 1919 to 1954, roughly 75% of all superhumans in popular fiction outside of comic books either lost their powers, had them fade away without explanation, or got married and abandoned using their superhuman abilities. Doc Savage, The Shadow, and The Avenger were the most popular superhumans in the pulps. Each began with superhuman abilities: Doc Savage, his strength; The Shadow, his ability to cloud men's minds so they could not see him; and The Avenger, his ability to rearrange the muscles in his face so he can take on any other person's features. By the Avenger's last appearance in 1944, an operation has cured the facial paralysis which gave him his superhuman ability. By Doc Savage's last appearance, in 1949, he is simply a talented, strong human being, his superhuman strength having disappeared years before without explanation. By the Shadow's last appearance in 1954, his powers have disappeared and he is merely a standard private detective. "

Meanwhile that day, IEET appoints this person as a Fellow.
"Ayesha is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation "

The Lifeboat Foundation adds hate nut Pamela Geller to its board and turns out to be a weird Ayn Rand front for opposing the "religion of science".

" One of the core parts (but also one of the later-developed parts) of the Pan-Sophontism philosophy is the need to not just provolve all of the various lifeforms in the universe into sophonts, but also to ensure that they can all live alongside one another without (for example) sophont predators slaughtering the sophont herbivores for food. "

" Sapientism is a philosophy centered around the rights and dignity of sapient lifeforms. Originally this only extended to Shamuan'uuto, but it later was expanded to mean any lifeform capible of self-awareness, comunication, and culture. "
" Japanese: Uchi Shugi "

responding to Kyle Munkittrick's characterization of the Bush II President's Council on Bioethics: " This is the assessment a reasonable person would have of the Council’s work after reading any of its reports, all of which were philosophically deep in their attempts to understand difficult bioethical issues, but generally went lightly on the policy recommendations — so one gets the sense from this post that Mr. Munkittrick is wholly unfamiliar with the reports issued by the body he so quickly dismisses. "

The convergence between AI rights and animal rights is happening far sooner than I expected it would.

Until transhumanists catch up with philosophers' distinctions among "sapient", "sentient", and "human", amateur failures like this will continue.

"Mommy? When are we supposed to thaw great-grandpa?"

" Well, according to humans, that tension between having free will while existing in a body that has a will of its own results in a state of being that is indescribably special. "

" although I don’t agree with the Scary Idea, I do agree that the development of advanced AGI has significant risks associated with it. There are also dramatic potential benefits associated with it, including the potential of protection against risks from other technologies (like nanotech, biotech, narrow AI, etc.). So the development of AGI has difficult cost-benefit balances associated with it—just like the development of many other technologies. "

" But this idea that simply being human does not mean one deserves “special respect”, rather, the respect owed to a “being” depends on its having certain attributes, is not only a serious danger to vulnerable humans. It could also lead to situations in which robots would be seen to deserve greater respect than humans and ethical restrictions on what we may do to change human life would become inoperative. "

"These guys like Raymond Kurzweil and Facebook board member Peter Thiel hold the primitive worldview derived from the likes of Ayn Rand or Werner Erhard, where it’s pretty much your duty to grab everything that isn’t nailed down, and that in itself proves your “superiority” and/or “fitness to survive.” (There's some weird connection between libertarianism and the desire to live forever—and such arguments often drag Darwin in, somewhere or other.)"

"On a more millennialist and provocative note, the Singularity also offers a modern-day, quasi-religious answer to the Fountain of Youth by affirming the notion that, yes indeed, humans — or at least something derived from them — can have it all. "

Remember that Futurama episode in which the gang works at Leela's old cryonics job? So Ted Williams...

"Though a majority said that such drugs should not be made available to children who had no diagnosed medical condition, a third admitted that they would feel pressure to give “smart drugs” to their kids if they learned that other parents were doing so. Such competitive anxieties are already being felt in the workplace."

"What I don't like about transhumanists is the fact that they simply refuse to understand certain arguments of their opponents... In the midst of the current crisis, the idea of humans engineering paradise seems more risible than ever. ... In spite of which, transhumanism is a coming thing, a future faith. It's time to burnish your best pro-death arguments."

Frum: "It is probable that the trend to inequality will grow even stronger in the years ahead, if new genetic techniques offer those with sufficient resources the possibility of enhancing the intelligence, health, beauty and strength of children in the womb. How should conservatives respond to such new technologies? The anti-abortion instincts of many conservatives naturally incline them to look at such techniques with suspicion — and indeed it is certainly easy to imagine how they might be abused. Yet in an important address delivered as long ago as 1983, Pope John Paul II argued that genetic enhancement was permissible — indeed, laudable — even from a Catholic point of view, as long as it met certain basic moral rules. Among those rules: that these therapies be available to all. Ensuring equality of care may become inseparable from ensuring equality of opportunity."

"1. Robots couldn't really give a fuck if you live or die. Seriously. I mean, what are you thinking?"

...the hell?

"The Rune of Life ties together for us the past and the future of our people. And it signifies our radical and implacable opposition to the contraveners of the Creators Purpose and the enemies of our people."

"Eritis sicut dii -- you shall be as gods. It's time to leave our stifling earthly cradle and fulfill our evolutionary destiny among the stars...or die trying... so onwards, past the event horizon and into the heart of the technological Singularity!"

"it became clear that the people of the world needed a new religion, one not founded in myth, egalitarianism and superstition, but instead, fact, science, reason, objectivism, spirituality and empiricism."

"we need to start now to strongly encourage the development of moral sentiments that are broad enough encompass within the sphere of moral concern sentiences that are constituted differently from ourselves."

"Objections to such scientific advances have been voiced by many, including Kass, Sandal and Fukuyama. But perhaps the most famous and influential voice is that of the German philosopher and social theorist Jurgen Habermas."

"I look forward to our genetically enhanced post-human future, frightening as the possibility of profound biological change may be. However, pounding on Habermas's arguments isn't very challenging."

"The upshot of all of this is that the Future gets divided; the cute, insulated future that Joi Ito and Cory Doctorow and you and I inhabit, and the grim meathook future that most of the world is facing..."