If I've said something worthwhile, you're most welcome to use it.
On 2/5/26 7:46 AM, John Sundman via Silklist wrote:
~25 years ago I published an essay, /How I decoded the human genome/,
in /Salon,/ on the twin occasions of
* the 50th anniversary of the elucidation of the structure of DNA, and
* the conclusion of the Human Genome Project
about the implications of genetic engineering, of humans in particular.
In my essay I imagined a day, then far in the future, when genetic
manipulation would be available only to the extremely wealthy — who were
already, in 2000, publicly sharing their eugenicist and
transhumanist visions.
I wrote:
/ I wanted to address the questions that have been implicit ever since
Rosalind Franklin’s crystallography revealed God’s schematics for James
Watson and Francis Crick to decode: What is a human being? What is our
worth? Who decides?/
/
/
That 'far in the future' day that I wrote about in 2003 has now arrived,
I'm working on a new essay about billionaires who dream of becoming /
literally/ not human, but transhuman — superhuman.
There's a lot of good stuff in this thread that I might want to quote in
my essay. If you have posted anything in this thread that you would
consider me allowing to use — attributed to you by name or by whatever
identifier you prefer — please message me off-list.
I will not use anything said on here without explicit prior OK from the
author.
Thanks,
jrs
On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 8:12 AM Udhay Shankar N via Silklist
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 5:26 PM Ra Jesh via Silklist
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
wrote:
As a flip question:
Who are exemplars of people with extreme wealth who still
maintain a high degree of humanity?
The only hyper wealthy people I personally know all belong to the
first generation with that degree of wealth. So they've all (in some
sense) had to learn how to be billionaires. In order to survive
(quite literally) as such, they need multiple layers of
intermediaries. At a bare minimum, professional money managers and
'fixers'. This comes with some level of Lady Macbeth stains on one's
hands.
I think the only meaningful way to answer your question is to look
at net impact on their immediate environment and on society as a
result of the wealth. I can think of some examples.
Udhay
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