Re: Sacred Cows

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Wed, 30 Oct 1996 14:13:19 +0100 (MET)


On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Chris Hind wrote:

> Does being uncomfortable about doing something count as a sacred cow? For
> example I would've loved to go to one of the extropian meetings, parties,
> whatever but I am hesitant on the point of wondering how the people on this
> list actually are personality wise and not solely through intellectual
> debate. For some reason I get this creepy vision of some bizarre occult
> group when I try to envision an extropian gathering although I know that it
> is completely the opposite.

Well, I'm not sure it is a sacred cow (then you would get irritated if
somebody told you "extropians are not an occult society"), but it is an
interesting problem. We have all these attributions on people, places,
things and actions that we have not consciously chosen and often are
completely irrational - very irritating.

In your case, it seems that you fear that we all wear masks on the list,
and become someone else in real life. My personal experience is that this
is quite rare (although there are some differences between
net-personalities and RW-personalities, of course). I was pleasantly
surprised when the members of the omega mailing list got together, they
immediately enjoyed each other's company and we have made it a monthly
tradition to dine somewhere. I expect the same goes for the extropians.

> This idea gnaws at me and I hate it. Perhaps I
> need to discuss this with some of the list members over the phone (anders?)
> and sort things out.

I would gladly speak with you, although timezones and my erratic schedule
makes scheduling a phone conversation a bit non-trivial (my number is
<country number sweden> 08 83 76 21). But I suggest that you go to an
extropian gathering - if they are a bizarre cult you can always sneak
away. :-)

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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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