4 ms·

Transhumanism is impractical dystopian bullshit. When we can't make a taxi hailing app (uber) that is under 300 MB (because of "complexity," i.e. organisational

Transhumanism is impractical dystopian bullshit. When we can't make a taxi hailing app (uber) that is under 300 MB (because of "complexity," i.e. organisational failure), I find the idea of re-inventing the human being to be laughable.

dinkleberg 6y ago
How in the world do those have anything to do with each other? Is Uber the peak of human technology?
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  It's not about Uber, it's about the fact that we have a lot of experience with etching silicon while having almost no clue how to optimise our own behaviours for maximum collective intelligence. And until we do we're not going to be able to build lasting, stable systems for humans to live in. Hyper-upgrading human hardware without understanding our own psychology is going to to make our already dysfunctional systems even more hostile and aggressively un-survivable.
  - ta988 6y ago
    It is especially a concern for me as many of the more vocal proponents and moving forces of transhumanism overlap greatly with the people pushing completely inhuman and dysfunctional technologies.
  - XargonEnder 6y ago
    I've heard many transhumanists complain that that ignorance you're pointing to is holding back transhuman progress.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  They don't except perhaps some absurd stereotyping of the mythical "techbro" who exists in the doublethink superposition of antisocial loner loser who never even touched hands with a girl and a overgrown frat douchebag serial sexual harasser until one state is convenient to use as an attack. It is an ad hominem that shows they aren't even trying for logic just being a dumb emotion pump pushing one dimensional good and correct and bad and wrong axis to sway by association. He is ugly therefore he is likely to rob you kneejerk narcissistic 'logic'.That digression into sadly prevalent memes aside. "Cannot" fundamentally misunderstands the design goals. It is a mass market product where one of the major end goals is presentation so it propagates. One could go with a demoscene essentially CLI user interface with compressed maps but there wouldn't really be a user base for it defeating the point of a connection app.
- ForHackernews 6y ago
  > Is Uber the peak of human technology? Sure it is, according to the invisible hand. It pays better than just about any other job you can get working in technology. If economics is about how humanity chooses to allocate scarce resources, the peak achievements of human technology are taxi apps and online ads.
  - dudeman13 6y ago
    Using capitalism to define what is peak human technology or not seems silly to me. Humanity is historically bad at allocating their scarce resources. Faster horses and all that.
    - ForHackernews 6y ago
      It turns out the true innovation wasn't faster horses at all: it was horses that work as independent contractors and aren't subject to payroll taxes.
exdsq 6y ago
On a more optimistic note, we're flying an autonomous helicopter on Mars. I wouldn't look at (even successful) consumer apps as a metric of our engineering and computing abilities!
- ta988 6y ago
  No, you're absolutely right, but the fact that many of our best brains are used to just sell more ads to sell more things to sell more ads is concerning... Same with the best brains being used to "disrupt" things without taking humans into account.
- goatlover 6y ago
  We are, but the Fermi Paradox gives some pause to the notion that technological progress continues toward a post-singularity society that would make teanshumanism a reality. If it did, we’d be part of an alien civilization, since the galaxy would have been transformed long before we evolved.
  - morpheos137 6y ago
    There is zero evidence that a technological singularity is possible. In fact the technological gains to learning basic physics seems to have slowed over the last half century or so.
ohiovr 6y ago
Take one thing and put into another. At the end the start is gone. That's us. The human beings. I prefer to die as a one of the human beings.

dinkleberg 6y ago

How in the world do those have anything to do with each other? Is Uber the peak of human technology?

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
It's not about Uber, it's about the fact that we have a lot of experience with etching silicon while having almost no clue how to optimise our own behaviours for maximum collective intelligence. And until we do we're not going to be able to build lasting, stable systems for humans to live in. Hyper-upgrading human hardware without understanding our own psychology is going to to make our already dysfunctional systems even more hostile and aggressively un-survivable.
- ta988 6y ago
  It is especially a concern for me as many of the more vocal proponents and moving forces of transhumanism overlap greatly with the people pushing completely inhuman and dysfunctional technologies.
- XargonEnder 6y ago
  I've heard many transhumanists complain that that ignorance you're pointing to is holding back transhuman progress.
Nasrudith 6y ago
They don't except perhaps some absurd stereotyping of the mythical "techbro" who exists in the doublethink superposition of antisocial loner loser who never even touched hands with a girl and a overgrown frat douchebag serial sexual harasser until one state is convenient to use as an attack. It is an ad hominem that shows they aren't even trying for logic just being a dumb emotion pump pushing one dimensional good and correct and bad and wrong axis to sway by association. He is ugly therefore he is likely to rob you kneejerk narcissistic 'logic'.That digression into sadly prevalent memes aside. "Cannot" fundamentally misunderstands the design goals. It is a mass market product where one of the major end goals is presentation so it propagates. One could go with a demoscene essentially CLI user interface with compressed maps but there wouldn't really be a user base for it defeating the point of a connection app.
ForHackernews 6y ago
> Is Uber the peak of human technology? Sure it is, according to the invisible hand. It pays better than just about any other job you can get working in technology. If economics is about how humanity chooses to allocate scarce resources, the peak achievements of human technology are taxi apps and online ads.
- dudeman13 6y ago
  Using capitalism to define what is peak human technology or not seems silly to me. Humanity is historically bad at allocating their scarce resources. Faster horses and all that.
  - ForHackernews 6y ago
    It turns out the true innovation wasn't faster horses at all: it was horses that work as independent contractors and aren't subject to payroll taxes.

exdsq 6y ago

On a more optimistic note, we're flying an autonomous helicopter on Mars. I wouldn't look at (even successful) consumer apps as a metric of our engineering and computing abilities!

ta988 6y ago
No, you're absolutely right, but the fact that many of our best brains are used to just sell more ads to sell more things to sell more ads is concerning... Same with the best brains being used to "disrupt" things without taking humans into account.
goatlover 6y ago
We are, but the Fermi Paradox gives some pause to the notion that technological progress continues toward a post-singularity society that would make teanshumanism a reality. If it did, we’d be part of an alien civilization, since the galaxy would have been transformed long before we evolved.
- morpheos137 6y ago
  There is zero evidence that a technological singularity is possible. In fact the technological gains to learning basic physics seems to have slowed over the last half century or so.

ohiovr 6y ago

Take one thing and put into another. At the end the start is gone. That's us. The human beings. I prefer to die as a one of the human beings.