I suspect almost *everyone* feels that way at some point, which is why we have the sects and clades and religions and politics and culture and arts that we do. (The great irony of global hegemony is that, like fractals, its unity dissolves the closer you look; there is no “normal”, no matter how the media would like us to think otherwise.) Looking at the world as it stands – riven by falsely perceived differences, a multitude of groups arguing over ephemera at cross purposes while the important existential-risk-grade issues go unaddressed – I think seeking global unity is far more worthwhile a goal in the long run than hiving off, taking your ball and going home. If you believe you have good things to offer to the world – and I believe transhumanism *does* have good things to offer to the world – then keep offering them. The only way we’ll fix this mudball enough for us to escape it is by all pulling together; to go separatist is to concede defeat on behalf of the entire species, and in doing so help to ensure your own demise.

And as the resource crunches and climate shifts hit, anyone wandering off whistling Dixie and saying “well, we washed our hands of you normals, anyway” simply isn’t going to be allowed to head for the hills by the angry mobs. Regardless of their true intent, separatist groups are subject to our deeply-embedded primate-vintage tribal Hatred Of The Other. To imagine otherwise – and to imagine that any one group will somehow pull off, pacifisticly and nobly, what every vaguely rebellious twenty-something has considered at least once in their lives, but which has never been achieved, namely a successful bloodless secession from the rest of the planet – is certainly not evil or wrong, but I struggle to call it anything other than (charmingly) naive.

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