Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Robot Cultists Have Seen the Future. And It Is a White Penis.

Seven days have passed and so it is time for another White Guys of "The Future" Report. I made my weekly jaunt to the stealth-Robot Cult outfit IEET's website, and can report that there is not a single person who is not a white guy among the portraits of today's featured authors and speakers there. You may recall that it was all white guys all the time last week as well (one white woman was included in the heady futurological mix two weeks ago).

It remains exactly as true as it has done every other week that I've pointed this out, that only a minority of people in the world are in fact white guys, only a minority of people with whom tomorrow will be made and shared are in fact white guys, only a minority of people in the world impacted by technodevelopmental changes are in fact white guys, and only a minority of people in the world who are well informed and have important things to say about matters of technoscience are in fact white guys and hence this endless ongoing parade of techno-transcendentalizing white guys fancying themselves spokesmen for "The Future" is actually an enormously problematic thing (though far from the only one to be found among Robot Cultists, for more go here) about the so-called "serious futurists" and "bioethicists" and technoscience "policy wonks" of the IEET.

See you guys next week… you know, in The Future!

1 comment:

Impertinent Weasel said...

Robot Cultists Have Seen the Future. And It Is a White Penis.

New game! Every time a transhumanist uses the word 'future,' replace with the words 'white penis'.

Hilarity ensues. For example:

To survive the white penis in one piece, humanity has to take those qualities that are the best in us — love, compassion, and altruism — and give them as much muscle as we can.
- Michael Anissimov, from the blog Accelerating White Penis