Anders Sandberg wrote:
> "Zenarchy" <jr@shasta.com> writes:
>
> > A Super Intelligence (or a Lao Tzu, or a Siddhartha Gautama) wins Pascal's
> > Wager by becoming a god.
>
> Very well put.
>
> Is it just me, or doesn't it look like there is ample room for an
> interesting synthesis of transhumanist thinking with some of the
> eastern philosophical systems without having to throw important things
> like critical thinking and empiricism overboard (as you often have to
> do when trying it with western religions)?
Well, if God made man in His image, as western religions state, then being extropian is merely attempting to fulfill one's potential to be God, isn't it? The old story of being evicted from Eden is a problem in being seen as promoting ignorance over knowledge, but only because most westerners equate a lotus eating paradise as the ultimate acheivement (socialist weakness). Eden was an incubator. As soom as man demonstrated his ability, he was given a real life that challenged his abilities..he was given the universe. That is extropian..
Mike Lorrey