At 12:17 AM 3/5/00 -0500, Don wrote:
>H. G. Wells had to be at least a great proto-extropian. He didn't talk of
>personal immortality, but perhaps he lived at too early a time for that. But
>most of the other ideas are there. I wonder how many people he influenced?
[....]
>CABAL: Little animals. And if we're no more than animals,
>we must snatch
>each little scrap of happiness and live and suffer and pass-mattering no
>more than all the other animals do or have done. It is this-or that! All the
>universe or nothing! Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?
Don: I also find that scene deeply stirring. You might be interested to
know that you can find the dialogue you quoted at the back of the very
first issue of Extropy magazine (the paper edition in 1998).
The problem with Wells was that he seemed to be a bit of a technocrat--in
the sense that he thought a scientific elite should run things for the
citizens. It's been a long time since I read any Wells, so maybe I'm being
unfair to him (someone please correct me if so). He seems quite extropian
expect in that my impression was that he looked down on the masses (the
lumpen-proletariat as the Leninists would say) as incapable of creating
their own future. Aside from that, he gave a powerful message of humanist
and technological optimism.
Onward!
Max
Max More, Ph.D.
President, Extropy Institute. www.extropy.org
CEO, MoreLogic Solutions. www.maxmore.com
max@maxmore.com or more@extropy.org
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