Re: Psychadelic and other Garbage on Extropians

Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Tue, 22 Jul 1997 22:39:52 -0700

At 05:28 PM 7/22/97 -0500, Forrest wrote:
>later, Curt Adams wrote:
>
>I agree the drek content has gone way up. I think some of this comes
>from
>the Extropian commitment to dynamic "optimism".
>
>[[Yes, this is one of the Extropian tenents I disagree with. Wishful
>thinking
>has to be clearly distinguished from critical thinking.
>
> A positive attitude towards problems is handy; but it's very possible
>to be too enthusiastic about ideas or possibilities and ignore reality.

Forrest: Have you read my Dynamic Optimism essay? Your comments suggest
that you haven't. The whole *point* of D.O. as distinguished from other
forms of optimism is its critical attitude. Being dynamically optimistic is
incompatible with ignoring reality. Critical thinking has always formed a
core part of being extropian.

Once you understand the difference between dynamic optimism and wishful
thinking, do you still disagree with D.O.? If so, what exactly do you
disagree with?

Thanks,

Max

P.S. I put a new, revised and improved version of the Dynamic Optimism
essay on the ExI web site not long ago: http://www.extropy.org/do.htm

Max More, Ph.D.
more@extropy.org
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President, Extropy Institute: exi-info@extropy.org, http://www.extropy.org
EXTRO 3 CONFERENCE on the future: http://www.extropy.org/extro3.htm