Proactionary Principle

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The proactionary principle, phrase coined in 2004 by cultural strategist Natasha Vita-More, who is known for her writings and multi-media transhumanist works, is an ethical principle intended as a pro-innovation counterbalance to the more famous precautionary principle.

Dr. Max More, philosopher who spearheaded transhumanism as a modern philosophy and movement and founder of extropy, authored the text for the ethical principle that stipulates the following:

People’s freedom to innovate technologically is highly valuable, even critical, to humanity. This implies several imperatives when restrictive measures are proposed: Assess risks and opportunities according to available science, not popular perception. Account for both the costs of the restrictions themselves, and those of opportunities foregone. Favor measures that are proportionate to the probability and magnitude of impacts, and that have a high expectation value. Protect people’s freedom to experiment, innovate, and progress.

The Proactionary Principle was formulated as an opposing view point to the Precautionary Principle which is based on the concept that probabilities are uncertain and people are prone to errors of judgement. The Proactionary Principle is based upon the empirical observation that historically, the most useful and important technological innovations were neither obvious nor well-understood at that the time of their invention.

The mathematical concept of probability itself is no more than a method of quantifying human ignorance. Yet it is apparent, from many centuries of successful physics, that nature is not random but follows a set of deterministic laws. Therefore sufficient study of the variables of any proposed course of action will yield acceptable levels of predictability. In this regard The Proactionary Principle can be looked upon as the philosophical formulation of the accepted mathematical principles of extrapolation and the logical principles of induction.

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