Hi Carl <ctcox@juno.com>,
You asked:
> Brent [said he is] first and foremost an Extropian.
>
> My dictionary doesn't include that word, and I don't have access to
> the www. How about a definition for us rural deprived people. :-)
What? You don't have www access? You definitely must not yet
be extropian then! ;) Any search for the term in any web search engine
will net a wealth of information about it.
Extropy is the complement to Entropy. It isn't its opposite,
it simply works with it. As entropy increases, it drives the extropic
process and things spontaneously improve and get better. Unlike the
term "entropy" but like the term "information" it is difficult to
describe mathematically or even rigorously. But, as they say: "You
know it when you see it." One example would be, as you look back in
time you can see the results of the unstoppable evolutionary increase
in extropy recorded in the fossil record and also the revolutionary
increases in recent history.
As the great extropian Anders Sandberg said: "Resistance is
futile, you will be transcended." ;)
Extropians are simply optimists. Rather than faithlessly
thinking that things are "going to hell in a hand-basket", they
believe that things are getting better. Not only this, but they have
faith that, through works, things will continue to get better at an at
least exponential rate and they hope that there will be no limit to
this progress. As long as there is any problem anywhere, like say,
there is still a loved one stuck in hell (if there really is such a
thing) or the grave or whatever, they will forever work, via any good
means available to them, having faith that some day, some way or
another, they might find or achieve a good way to solve the problem.
If forcing the person to be good isn't a good way to get them out of
hell, then they simply look and strive for some other way forever
having faith that some other possible way exists.
We hope that all mankind might be saved and work with any
reliable and rational means to achieve such. Specifically: by
discovering, understanding, and harnessing (i.e. obedience to
whatever laws are required or on which the natural miracle is
predicated) all reliably knowable laws physical and otherwise. Many
extropians believe that the miraculous work done by all the
generations preceding us has given our generation the privilege of
being the first generation to have a technology, cryonic preservation,
that might possibly enable us to make it to the beginning of the time
(I like to call it "The Millennium" ;) in which there will finally be
no additional forced death.
We believe that as some people now think God is, we may all
become.
*I* believe that the logically necessary promise made to our
fathers will be planted in the hearts of our immortal children, and
that they will forever strive to repay the dept they owe to their
ancestors for doing the miraculous God like thing of living and
working to give them a glorious heavenly immortal life. The hearts of
these children shall necessarily turn to and seek after their fathers.
If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted.
We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured
many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is
anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek
after these things.
This is a very small part of extropianism. Extropianism is
different for different people. This is obviously my own spin on what
it is.
Anyway, there is so much more, but I hope these few words of
attempted (and probably twisted ;) definition help at least a little.
Brent Allsop