Somehow TESCREAL did not radicalize me

[grimjim]

I was into some of the early letters of TESCREAL but grew disenchanted.

Transhumanism - Who doesn't want life and health extension? Ultimately, I saw this as yet another fandom. Only those involved in research and/or technology that would contribute to those ends were really making things happen. THe rest were influencers and fans.

Extropianism - Toxic positivity in its founding formulation lost me right off in the 90s.

Singularitarianism - The technological singularity nteresting concept, but not necessary for human advancement. Later on I saw the downside of culture shock and predictably consequent populist rejection.

Cosmism (US brand) - Cellular automata were fascinating, but it clearly became an overhyped fad, reminding me of how everything was seen as clockwork in the Newtonian/Industrial era.

Rationalism - I was oblivious to this. Were they not rational?! This must have been code for something else I've not investigated yet.

Effective Altruism - I was oblivious to this. Anyway, pure utilitarians suck, and we can prove that, particularly if they value human life in terms of GDP.

[edited to add]
Longtermism - See my entry for EA.

Comments

[sabotabby]

A lot of these end up being code for eugenics.

[grimjim]

And yet historical eugenics makes no sense given the premises of transhumanism. If any genes are determined to be harmful, like a genetic disease that cuts lifespan short, surely they could be treated or even cured therapeutically. There's no a priori reason why mutual aid couldn't leverage transhuman technologies.

Years ago I came to the conclusion that the Victorian fad of creating aesthetically pleasing but unhealthy dog breeds would probably be recapitulated when hypothetical transhuman fools enhanced their appearances based on what they thought was better. Recent incel aesthetic self-improvement fads appear to be proving me right.

I found that a lot of transhumanist fen weren't very practically intelligent, based on evident inability to reason through and proactively identify unintended consequences. Merely being a fan of transhumanism did not "upgrade" them to intellectual ubermensch via association.

Some far-right populists and neo-fascists were drawn to transhumanism and became leading influencers within the movement. Their ideological baggage was part of what made TESCREAL so toxic. A sustained Russian influence campaign to hack and disrupt US-led Western transhumanism actively provided support for the far-right in the 2010s, and appears to have been a practice run prior to their later pre-Trump courting of the GOP. No less than neo-reactionaries (NRx) once attempted a takeover of H+ and almost succeeded.

[dougo]

I think the Rationalists have been somewhat unfairly lumped in. There are certainly some creeps in that community but their general platform seemed pretty anodyne to me. But mainly I only paid attention to Julia Galef and her Rationally Speaking podcast.

[grimjim]

Were the Rationalism an offshoot of the New Atheism?