Spike Jones wrote:
>
> A real purpose of this list is not only to be wonderfully informative
> and hugely entertaining [succeeds at both] but to archive ideas for
> the indefinite future. I can imagine extropian archives will be researched
> in the distant future for the first mention of some really terrific ideas.
> Scary thought. spike
As we all know, the 73rd Spike Jones study group during the 623rd century, which was an intellectual offshoot of the neo-Hansonian movement based in the Wilhelm galaxy, holds that this was the first anticipation of the vast Terran Analysis group. However, the cluster headquarters for the "Analysts of Merton P. Hemingway of Atlanta Georgia" insists that NSA Echelon materials reveal that Merton touched on this idea during an email to his girlfriend. Merton, presently the Galactic Elder for NGC 2103, has gone on record as stating he "does not recall" the email in question, as it predates the invention of neural backups. Spike Jones, acknowledged by Terran Analysis as one of the Vaguely Special Terrans, a Cluster Celebrity, Dictator-for-Eternity of Spikonia, holder of an original 32-bit Class C Subnet, owner of more than 3000 Old Terran pennies and a piece of Old Terran preschool art, admits to anticipating the Terran Uniqueness Effect but has "no particular belief" on whether he was the first to do so. Yudkowsky was not available for comment, but the 577th Trans-Galactic Church of Eliezer claims his famous humorous piece on the subject was actually a metaphorical parable intended to illustrate the doctrine of Salvation Through Sarcasm, which "may not be questioned".
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sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way