

What does a non-libertarian transhumanist future look like? - ivankirigin
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/82713/

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ivankirigin
Note that non-libertarian != Leninism, but that aside, it's an interesting
question.

Or perhaps the nature of human enhancement itself will cause those that
partake to become extreme individualists.

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patio11
The flipside of human enhancement is human dehancement, right? What is to stop
your favorite totalitarian dictator from taking cheap and durable genetic
modification and using it to cow the populace? I don't mean "cow" like "make
them quake in terror", I mean "cow" like "make them herd animals who cannot
even conceive of threatening him or forming bases for wanting to do so in the
first place".

Think of a technical caste populated by people with a 100% genetic disposition
to high-functioning autism: they're perfect for using for the Great Leader's
projects. They're smart enough to do the work, totally dedicated to the task
at hand, don't ask for pay or object to abuse, and if you work one until he
dies well, hey, human life is cheap.

For a moderately less dystopian future, imagine a future where genetic
modification is hella-expensive (lets say $1 million to play design-your-baby)
but fairly effective (a designer baby is guaranteed to look as good as the
prettiest girl in your high school class and be about as smart as your
valedictorian). Economically rational parents unconstrained by moral qualms
would fall over themselves to buy this procedure: after all, it is just a pre-
emptive and expensive version of college.

Why is this future dystopian? Because access to the $1 million design-your-
baby technology is highly differentiated across class lines, and the designer
babies are essentially designed to roflstomp over any sort of meritocratic
competition. It would be a virtually permanent caste system -- 25 years after
introduction a natural-born human (and there will be a word for them, mark my
words) would be at Harvard as either a curious fluke or, more likely, an
affirmative action sop to the little people.

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rms
Something like Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom?

It's a transhumanist future with no scarcity and a reputational economy. I am
certainly afraid that the corporations will run the world enough that even
after (practical scarcity of energy for the average person) that consumer
goods and necessities will still be kept artificially scarce.

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100k
Read Ken MacLeod. In particular, The Sky Road. (Though I guess the
transhumanists are kind of libertarians in that one.)

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zzkt
Except for the anarcho-syndicalist transhumanists. ..

