Nice article.

But i have to say that the tobacco smoking (you Extie may well be aware of the fact that there are plenty of transhumanists who also smoke, just not tobacco) is a suitable hook for the story to hang on, but nothing more. We all make deals or compromises paying as much as we think what we get in return is worth: be it eating the stuff supermarkets sell as food, burning fossils for transportation, heating or cooling, drinking alcohol or smoking crack, making babies despite the resulting environmental pressure etc.

Instead the crucial point she makes is this: "what transhumanism is mostly concerned with is choice or rather the lack of it" - i completely concur which is why i call myself a thelemic (thelema = greek for "will") transhumanist, where the transhumanist part indicates merely the recognition that life in general, and human life in particular, is in flux, subject to history, constantly evolving, and consequentially the resolution to take control of the process and steer it toward achieving desired results. What these are is subject to the remaining discussions within the "transhumanist movement", and in my case, and apparently in Extie's and Giulio's as well, to my personal preferences which may or may not be shared by others.

Of course there are limits to what i would accept as "valid" transhumanist concerns which i can summarise this way: my transhumanism is based on humanism, which means it includes the values embraced in the last few centuries under the term enlightenment. So no, nazis would not be included. And, sorry but i have to say it again, religion (at least exoteric religion, which is the common variety) is not either, as it is not based on reason but on faith. This does not mean that i deny the attraction of transcendence; i am not a materialist, but i believe the "metaphysical" realm needs to be subject to scientific, empirical investigation, or else it is open to charlatanry and likely to be used, as history up to the present shows, in the service of domination and exploitation.