William,
Do you ever read Edward de Bono? Your writing style reminds me a lot
of his. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I *had* read this sentence
[from a separate post of yours], or one quite similar to it, in one of
his books:
"Water is always true to it's nature but it conforms to containers, rocks,
etc."
No offense intended. I really liked your post, "Sleepers, a possible
solution".
In response to some comments on that essay, you wrote:
>>>>
Yes, I think this is indeed what many people do instinctually.
I like to think that I am trying to nudge them one of the ways
they naturally tend to go and perhaps by description enable
them to do it better.
<<<<
I don't agree that many people do it instinctually. I think people's
instincts propel them to mainly associate with others who are like themselves.
I think there *is* an instinctual curiosity about people who are different
than we are, but it propels us to gawk and point, not invite them over
for dinner and generally make meaningful gestures toward bonding with
them.
That is why it's so important to spread powerful, positive memes like
yours, to help people *overcome* their instincts and reach out to those
who are different from them. Indeed, the idea of overcoming our natural
instincts is central to extropianism, IMO.
I definitely foresee your post spreading like wildfire around the net,
and would love to see it turn up in a magazine somewhere. It's a great
piece of work; I would encourage you to go ahead and submit it to some
magazines.
Don't be shy about sharing your ideas with the world. In doing so, you
can help change it for the better. Go for it!
Kindest regards,
Bill Douglass
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:49 MDT