In a message dated 99-09-01 10:37:47 EDT, k_aegis@mindspring.com wrote:
> Turning to the applications of that tension within extropianism, itself, I
> arrive at the following 'hard questions': To what extent do extropians
> support the development of a wider community, and to what extent would they
> prefer to develop private enclaves? Will extropians arrive at a point
> wherein they reject the sovreignty of any nationally-based governance, or
> would the extropians in the end have to establish a compromise between
their
> own ideals and the strictures of geopraphically-based polity? If
extropians
> decide to establish their own polity, what form would it take?
Personally, I don't see these as inconsistent goals. I'd like to see
extropianism both influence society at large AND inform the creation of
wholly new societies, some of which might well be described as "private
enclaves". When we're working to influence society at large, I think we HAVE
to be willing to compromise, but I'd like to maintain the intellectual rigor
to be able to engage in the kind of experimentation in new societies and new
polities that we discuss here from time to time. Thus, perhaps by the middle
of the next century, we might see multiple enclaves developing in cyberspace,
in ocean or island habitats on earth and in one or more habitats off earth,
while at the same time many people in the old "mainstream" societies will
have come to realize that the direction of successful segments of those
societies has become more or less "extropian".
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"Civilization is protest against nature;
progress requires us to take control of evolution."
-- Thomas Huxley