Ei mitään standardia

The notion of a standard body underlies many philosophical and scientific theories. Yet if there is no standard body, then no bodily alteration can destroy something core. Every body is altered constantly by physical and social forces outside of our control. There is a paradox – selfhood is traditionally something immutable and simple. But critics of enhancement argue that changing the body alters selfhood. We must face the paradox, and if there is no standard body then no alteration destroys this mythical core. I look at neuroscientific and phenomenological accounts of bodily experience to show that there is no standard body.
- Robin Zebrowski: Every Body is Already Different: How the Myth of a Standard Body Feeds the Myth of an Authentic Self

Muistellaan vielä mistä "there is nothing special about transhumanism" -meemi lähti:

What distinguishes transhumanism as a philosophy is that it wholeheartedly embraces the goal of success instead of making excuses for failure. There are many philosophical explanations for: Why Life Must Suck in Order to be Meaningful. Why all the pain and death and catastrophe and the minor annoyances that drain your life-force are, somehow, necessary. All these standard excuses have a strained, forced quality to them, like a theory stretched to explain evidence that just doesn't fit. Now, transhumanism just says: This sucks. Let's fix it. That's all. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. Life is better than death, health is better than sickness, happiness is better than pain, knowledge is better than ignorance, and when you see something wrong, you don't rationalize it; you fix it. It is all very straightforward, so what's so special about transhumanism? Actually there is nothing special about transhumanism. Presently, most other philosophies have a special additional clause that causes them to react oddly to advanced technologies. As if, for example, anything that involves genes is scary. There is a possibly apocryphal story about the person who was warned not to eat a tomato because it has genes in it. In transhumanism, this special yuck-reaction is missing and such technologies are just an ordinary part of the natural universe.
- Eliezer Yudkowsky, A Theory of Fun (myös MP3-muodossa)