Hi!
At 19:57 30-08-1999 -0700, you wrote:
>First, I should say that Joao may be visiting this list perhaps
>in part because *I* suggested it.
I'm a lot older member of this list than most people think because I hardly post any messages -- I'm just doing it now because I'm in hollidays, but I'll soon disapear once again. Long before you mentioned you were an extropian, I was a member of this list.
>Of course, that was months
>before got seriously involved in it and found out
>what a bunch of reactionaries we all are... :-;?
I think some of the older members remember me and all the insults I got for my opposition to libertarianism. This discussion is not new to me, I only decided to intervene because it was a very specific case with direct implications on how I see humankind evolving.
>Second, I should say that Joao is working in the biology
>of aging, so, this is one of the few lists he can converse
>in and discuss his ideas and hopefully be reinforced that the
>directions he has chosen in life are good.
I'll be honest with you, reading Anders' (mostly, not exclusively, him) e-mails has probably been the single most important cause for me to be on this list.
>Third, if I were in his shoes, I would wonder if extending
>the human lifespan made much sense if it all it would do
>is promote the survival of people who feel the promotion
>of stupidity and irrational thinking is a necessary evil
>that goes hand-in-hand with the promotion of liberty!
I don't think libertarians promote irrational thinking, we just disagree in some perspectives. About your considerations, I work in gerontology because I don't want to age, not exactly to help extropians -- as I say in the link I have towards the Extropy Institute, I don't trust extropians but we have some common goals. I know perfectly well than an end of aging today would be a catastrophe to the human species; perhaps afterwards I'll work on making this a better place; for now, I work for selfish reasons.
Thanks for the following explanations, you've been posting many good e-mails within the past few months -- previously you didn't post any e-mails here -- and come to prove I was right on the judgement I made about you. Just for curiosity, what are you doing now? I'm moving to Belgium to work on my PhD in molecular gerontolgy.
Goodbye and goodluck.