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Confessions of a Transhumanist: On Life

Author
Stitcher
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#21 - 2014-11-04 03:43:05 UTC
Pieter Tuulinen wrote:
I know what I am capable of in defence of my chosen system. What wouldn't I do to protect it? What does that make me?


Personally, I would prefer to bravely choose the wrong side, than to cravenly choose no side at all.

AKA Hambone

Author of The Deathworlders

Pieter Tuulinen
Societas Imperialis Sceptri Coronaeque
Khimi Harar
#22 - 2014-11-04 04:19:40 UTC
I would also prefer that. On the other hand I have done things I mistakenly believed to be justified by the ends.

For the first time since I started the conversation, he looks me dead in the eye. In his gaze are steel jackhammers, quiet vengeance, a hundred thousand orbital bombs frozen in still life.

Andreus Ixiris
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#23 - 2014-11-04 04:40:20 UTC
Rapasha Idama once said "It really is of importance, not only what men do, but also what manner of men they are that do it. Among the works of man, the first in importance surely is man himself."

Andreus Ixiris > A Civire without a chin is barely a Civire at all.

Pieter Tuulinen > He'd be Civirely disadvantaged, Andreus.

Andreus Ixiris > ...

Andreus Ixiris > This is why we're at war.

Ruun Kovari
Doomheim
#24 - 2014-11-05 06:55:46 UTC
A thought occurs to me, as I watch my fellow capsuleers debate the possibility of utopia: has it occurred to anyone that, ironically, we may prove not only to bring progress toward our ideals, but carry also the demise of the worlds we hope to create?

It is true that our appearance and rapid rise in prominence has been the catalyst of great change in recent years. But , for the vast majority of humans, what impact does this change have? Even if a new breed of powerful and mercurial spacefarers are now at large in the world, the majority of the human population that still lives planetside only knows of our kind through word of mouth, and articles in the news. Indeed, next to the excesses of the Blood Raiders or the widespread depredations of Sansha's Nation, the occasional capsuleer-perpetrated slaughter can often seem like the actions of one monster among many.

And as for our power, our freedom? It is true that I travel the stars as I wish, and that I have seen much that few other humans have. However, we are not yet the mighty and transcendent beings that some of us would like to believe we are. For evidence, one need simply vaporize an opportune target on the Jita 4-4 undock and watch what happens next. We are powerful, but we are, for now, controlled. Channeled, like rising floodwater. We are something new in society, but we do not direct it. We choose our own destinies - which is more choice than most people have - but we are not in control.

Indeed, if we were it would make no difference.

All this talk of utopia and striving for change glosses over important and essentially human qualities that nobody, be they Gallente or Caldari or even Jovian can truly escape. Being wealthy enough to satisfy all our needs, we still throw ourselves into the acquisition of greater wealth. Possessing more personal power than all but a handful of people in the cluster, we still engage in wars and factional contests with greater power as their aim. Finally, the great irony of our existence is that we attempt to work our will on the world an change it to our liking while clinging to artificial immortality - changelessness - ourselves!

I speak not of hypocrisy, or morality, or any kind of judgment. All I say is that nothing exists in a vacuum; the past informs the present. In times of peace, the people remember those who spilled blood so they would not have to - and in times of war, they do as those before them did. The same is true for any great acts which change people and societies. Utopia may be attainable, but it is surely not eternal. Perhaps those happy dwellers in the far future will remember that their world was shaped by undying adventurers among the stars, and seek to emulate them. Perhaps, if all one day are like us, it is the baseline that people will remember and seek to return to. Perhaps it is simply that acts of ours are remembered: our heroism, or monstrousness, or a million other things. But they would remember. And in such little things can lie the death of utopia.

We, not simply capsuleers, but all people, leave an impression. We are indelible. Thus, we are inescapable.

That is our curse.
Cuci Cairi
#25 - 2014-11-05 11:53:45 UTC
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. I mean, really. Some people in here really need to get over themselves.

And for those of you looking for utopia, may as well go to Utopia.
Ria Nieyli
Nieyli Enterprises
When Fleets Collide
#26 - 2014-11-05 15:03:13 UTC
Cuci Cairi wrote:
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. I mean, really. Some people in here really need to get over themselves.

And for those of you looking for utopia, may as well go to Utopia.


Ha.
Tyrel Toov
Non-Hostile Target
Wild Geese.
#27 - 2014-11-07 23:19:23 UTC
all men are monsters, but not all monsters need be evil. As for this "Utiopa", I don't see it happening ever. It will only take one person to find a flaw and bring the whole thing down in a rain of fire and death.

I want to paint my ship Periwinkle.

Publius Valerius
AirGuard
LowSechnaya Sholupen
#28 - 2014-11-08 05:47:05 UTC  |  Edited by: Publius Valerius
Saede Riordan wrote:
Confessions of a Transhumanist:

We were hunters once. We were explorers, foragers, wanderers and nomads. On Earth, that long lost forgotten seed of a homeworld, our ancestors first looked up to the stars in wonder. What dreams must those first human children have dreamed, long long ago in the genetic record? In those thousands of generations that have passed, are we so different now then then? If those long lost ancestors could see us now, astride the stars with the power of suns, yet still trapped in our childish human conflicts, what would they think of us? We who can not even peacefully put our little corner of space in order, riven with rivalries and hatred, is this truly to be our fate for all of time? Is our destiny of light to be defined by a perpetual sea of bloodshed that only grows with the population? Is this tortured existence, with so many suffering, really all that we can hope to achieve as a species? Is it truly human nature to be an agent of violence and conflict? Can we truly not do better?

It would seem that for many, we really cannot do better. The world is as it is, and we mere humans will never be able to achieve lasting peace or equality. Our human nature, as it would be put, is selfish, chaotic, violent and destructive, and that will never change. But is that truly human nature?


Instead I would argue that the only fixed part of human nature is its mutability. We can learn, we can adapt, and we can change our minds. And we can teach differently. We can teach peace, tolerance, acceptance, equality, and humanism. We can imagine a better world. And if we can imagine it, then we can make it real.

The role of human imagination is to conceive of all these delightful futures, chose the most amazing, and then pull the present forward to meet it.

In that much time, we will have changed. The simple passage of so many generations will have changed us. The necessity will have changed us. We’re an adaptable species, one constantly moving forward, striving to do better. It will not be we who finally bring about the utopias of our dreams. It will be a species very like us, but with more of our strengths, and fewer of our weaknesses. More confident, farseeing, capable and prudent. For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness. What new wonders undreamt of in our time will we have wrought in another generation and another. How far will have our nomadic species have wondered, by the end of the next century and the next millennium?

We are not monsters. Simply because we are capable of being monsters does not make it a core trait of our species, something we can never escape from. We are capable of so much better, so much greater. A destiny of light awaits, and I intend to do everything in my power to reach for it.

Ad Astra Per Aspera
Saede Riordan


Do you really believe in a "New Man", in a utopia?



Edit: Added a link.

I would love to have those classes ingame. See here:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/376566/march-07-2011/joshua-foer

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