Thread by @Sanilac_J

WHY ULTRAHUMANISM SOLVES POLITICS

We're trapped in a sociopolitical whirlwind of doom. What is ultrahumanism and why is it the answer to our troubles? I'll explain in this thread.

I'll start by identifying the root cause of our current political insanity:

Hardware is politically inconvenient.

What do I mean by hardware?

Well, in a human context, software is things like culture, customs, laws, and education. Hardware is what they run on.

Biology.

I'm going to call it hardware because it sets up some easily comprehensible analogies.

If you put a race-car driver in my 1999 Camry, he's not going to win any races. And if you give me Usain Bolt's sprinting coach, I'm not going to win any races either.

Similarly, if you try to run the latest AI software on a 1980s computer, it's just not going to work. And if you try to run the mathematics of black holes on my brain, it's not going to work either.🤣

So, you can't solve a serious hardware problem just by changing the software. We all know it.

However, this simple principle is very inconvenient on a sociopolitical level.

Nobody wants to be told that they don't have the right hardware. What people DO like to be told is: you have GREAT hardware, but that Feynman guy over there is ahead cause he's cheating you. We, the government, are here to help, and we'll make sure you get everything he has.

Today our politicians and journalists have taken pandering along these lines to new extremes. They deny even that gender is a hardware problem. Instead we're supposed to pretend people can be whatever gender they want, just by declaring it on a whim.

They deny that beauty is a hardware problem too. When somebody's fat, it's the fault of the beholder for having the wrong software, not the fatty for having broken hardware. Obviously it's nonsense, but people will really say this.

https://twitter.com/EvilVizier/status/1780846796882993567

The denial that hardware matters is causing an endless array of problems. One of the most expensive is the overemphasis of education. There are limits to what school can do. 30 years there wouldn't be enough to make me a rocket scientist--but it would be enough to make me broke.

Many of us are being saddled with ridiculous, unpayable student loans because we bought into this pipe dream of education being a cure-all when we were teenagers.

So, hardware matters and nobody wants to say so. But why, exactly, does nobody want to say so?

It's not just about inequality. It's because it hurts to admit your hardware can't be improved. That you're stuck with these limitations. People want to believe if they just do this or that they can achieve anything, even if it's not true.

Now, ultrahumanism is a proposal to improve our hardware on a biological level. To remove the limitations that cause the pain that makes us want to hear lies which, as a side-effect, turn society into a mess. And that's why it solves politics.

But... isn't that just transhumanism?

No.

The problem with transhumanism is that some transhumanists have very weird ideas that most normal people find off-putting or even repulsive. They want to grow frog legs and go wireheading on Alpha Centauri.

Needless to say, most people don't want that.

My main insight is that the “trans” in “transhumanism” simply DOESN'T NEED TO BE THERE. The "trans" takes a concept that should have universal appeal and makes it appealing only to a tiny minority.

What most people want is to be better humans, not to become INhuman.

Another mistake transhumanists make is to focus excessively on embryo selection as a means to human improvement. People are VERY cautious about their children. They set a very high bar when it comes to applying any technology to pregnancy.

Embryo selection isn't the only starting point, and it's not the best starting point to explain human advancement either. It's actually the one most likely to turn people away before they've heard you out.

Gene therapy and rejuvenation treatments are a much more widely acceptable starting point for human self-improvement. We'll develop these technologies first to cure people suffering from genetic diseases, and later extend them to improve our own health.

So, ultrahumanism is a proposal to upgrade our hardware with the specific goal of becoming better humans. It's a proposal that, unlike transhumanism, has universal appeal. The means to the goal are various, and start with something we can all agree on: healing the sick.

I'm not going to give you a full explanation of ultrahumanism here. For that you can read the essay I'll attach to the end of this thread. Instead I'll conclude by returning to the opening question once more.

Why does ultrahumanism solve politics?

Ultrahumanism solves politics because hardware, which has long been politically inconvenient, will become FAR LESS politically inconvenient as soon as people accept that hardware upgrades are actually possible, and not only that, they entail no stigma.

Consider the computer analogy again.

If you choose two PCs from the 80s, one will be faster than the other. But neither will be anywhere near as fast as the slowest computer you can buy today.

The speed differences between two old computers become irrelevant when you know how much progress is on the way.

Biological upgrades will give us all an opportunity to be better than the best person alive today, just as all computers today are better than the best computers from the 80s. Our present inequalities may be real, but they're irrelevant when we consider what's possible.

As better biotech becomes available, the taboo about admitting hardware matters will fade. And the social problems the stigma has created will fade too.

I'm sure our politicians will find some new way to screw us over. But ultrahumanism really can fix what's currently broken.

Everyone will be healthier, prettier, smarter.

The future's nearer than ever--and you're all invited.

You can read my essay on ultrahumanism here:

jsanilac.com/ultrahumanism

Or read this introductory thread posted on a rather dubious account.

https://twitter.com/EvilVizier/status/1638020299169083392