The Extropian Principles

Robin Hanson (hanson@dosh.hum.caltech.edu)
Fri, 26 Jul 96 08:48:20 PDT


Max writes:
>it seems a good time to post the Extropian Principles. ... They
>explain which attitudes those calling themselves "Extropians" hold in
>common to various degrees, and so explain the range of topics
>discussed on this list.

I have long been curious to what extent people here actually do hold
Max's attitudes in common, and whether there are other simpler
predictors of who will call themselves "Extropians". I've posted
before about my surveys of personality types and birth order
predictors. My intuition is that what we mainly have in common is
technical understanding and a genuine excitement and willingness to
think carefully about the near and distant future.

It would be possible to construct a survey of Extropians and some
control sample of non-Extropians, with questions about agree/disagree
with Max's attitudes, about personality type, and about the other
predictors I mentioned, and then do some statistics to see which of
these are the best predictors.

Robin Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/