Китай
In China you have the Confucian-Taoist ideas embodied in the Chinese garden - that human beings are an extension of nature, and that human nature is constantly to be improved. Human beings can be considered an extension of that garden and can be cultivated and perfected. There is no "sanctity of life" because it is all one flowing entity.
Индия
In India you have enormous diversity, a relatively free and syncretic society with a history of integration of new ideas. Hinduism has its share of man-animal-god chimera, a polytheistic system which seems a ready framework for the emergence of a heterogenous system of new sentient entities, a mythology of men who become gods and visa versa. Hindu sadhus and Buddhist monks both also may be the original transhumanists, spending their entire lives modifying the relationship of mind to body, and making the body do things if I had not seen it I would not think possible. Outside of the Western alchemists, I don't think any group in history spent so much energy on the process of human enhancement.
Запад
This is more speculation than anything else, but past Western history (e.g., the way it adopted coffee and other stimulants) makes me feel relatively optimistic. Radical technological innovation during the last few centuries has come mostly from Western societies, and although there are strong conservative forces working in them, my gut feeling is that they have are yet far from losing their innovative edge. But the impression often is that most Western societies have moved, from a very successful adult phase in the last few centuries, to a senior citizen phase. People there are very careful, scared of change, not flexible, ossified, etc.
США
Strengthening evangelical and other fundamentalist attitudes in the U.S. may make American progress in biotech difficult.
Глобальная культура
There is also the possiblity that globalization will make the old divisions between Occident and Orient meaningless or less salient at least.
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