M. E. Smith wrote,
>I think Stephenson's attitudes on these things are
>relevant to Extropianism in that many
>Extropians seem to relish ideas such as the downfall
>of the nation-state and the elimination
>of so-called "religious" memes, and a lot of
>Stephenson's writings are very cautionary when
>it comes to these sort of Extropian attitudes. (He
>may feel that the downfall of the
>nation-state might be inevitable, but he shudders to
>think what life will be like until they
>are replaced by something like "phyles".)
Some extropic thinkers may shudder at what life will become if nation-states and religiosity continue to lurch toward their self-fulfilling prophecies of totalitarian socialism and Armageddon. In this regard, caution and responsibility may prompt us to encourage as many folks as possible to abandon entropic manifestations of politics and theism before they kill us all.
Cheers,
_|_|_| _|_|_| _|_|_| --J. R.