On the one hand, a lot of people who were serious readers when they were kids cite as a reason for it a feeling that they didn't fit in with the people around them. On the other hand, not every parent is as involved with raising their child as every other--does your parents' moral code influence you more than Sesame Street? On the other other hand, let's say child A and child B grow up in different environments and read the same book--do they see the book differently because of their enivronments (probably)? Do they see their environments differently because of the book (maybe)? Does dissatisfaction with the environment lead to the book or the other way around (I think this is both)?

Of course, part of the way that your parents raise you is by giving you books to read early on (or by not giving you books to read), so can we even distinguish them?

I will say, probably the most important vector for transmitting morality is your direct social sphere when you're a kid. The second most important vector is the kinds of things you do for entertainment--which, for a lot of kids, can mean that science fiction is still hugely influential.

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[www.telegraph.co.uk]

If the media we choose to consume effects our subconscious enough to shape our dreams, do not underestimate what it can do to our morality.

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He's all "woe is us, the wicked Sci Fi is out to destroy our One True Path Of Truthy Truth, beware!"

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Fundies are literally incapable of seeing any good in anything that explains the universe and man's place in it that doesn't revolve around Jesus.

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(Which, of course, were all planted eons ago in primitive humanity's subconscious by our benefactors, the Space Brothers.)

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The subgenes want SLACK!

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Of course, considering he says Matrix and X-Files are "subtle"... I <3 me some Mulder and Scully, but "subtle" the show wasn't!

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Transhumanism.

The matrix addresses it. Star Trek had two shows with transhuman characters.

The idea that we're just biological robots and deterministic machines is a largely science fiction concept. It's also the predominant 'religion' of atheism if there is one.

We are machines. If we're machines we can be improved and rebuilt. We can be reprogrammed. We have evolved and we can continue to evolve.

What's Heroes? Transhumanism.

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Also, I wouldn't consider transhumanism a proper religion so much as a movement with political and spiritual applications, like environmentalism or vegetarianism. There may be quasi-religious aspects to it, but the ideology as a whole doesn't revolve around a central unifying figure or group of tenets. You can't fully reconcile the folks who expect to be defrosted 1,000 years from now with the ones who want to upload their personalities into the matrix when their bodies die.

Finally, Star Trek may have featured transhuman characters, but the show's concept of what qualifies as truly human is laughably conservative. Space travel is so antithetical to baseline humanity that you can be sure if we ever venture beyond the inner solar system, our astronauts will look a lot more like the Borg than Captain Kirk.

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