~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]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 5:26 PM Ra Jesh via Silklist < > [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 > > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > -- *Sundman figures it out! <https://johnsundman.substack.com/>* — an ongoing autobiographical meditation.
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