From: Alex Ramonsky (alex@ramonsky.com)
Date: Thu Jul 17 2003 - 07:35:48 MDT
Anders Sandberg wrote
>Personally I am *more* optimistic about the transhuman future today than
>I was just three years ago. We are finally starting to grow up.
>
>
>
Someone buy that man a pint : )
The last few months, it has gotten more and more enjoyable on this list.
I've felt welcome, interested, and encouraged. I haven't been able to
give much, due to being up to my monitors in other projects.
I've been attracted back again and again though, because of some
stunning examples of open intelligence and flexible logic, being
applied creatively to make things better, by a bunch of people who are
in my opinion the epitome of integrity under pressure, online (or
offline, those whom I have met.) This doesn't apply to all the people on
the list, just some of the most competent.
Since I first joined the list (2-3 years ago), the constant
determination, day by day and month by month, of these people to _make
things better_ has been a shining example to me. Their patience, in
dealing with some truly appalling incidents seems to me (almost)
supernatural.
That to me is the embodiment of being Extropian.
On this list I have met inspirers, creators, movers and doers. I have
met some of the people who are now my colleagues; we are working
together on projects which otherwise could not have happened.
People here have shared with me their research, designs and data; this
has led to new innovation in my own work and tech design.
Other list colleagues have given me essential feedback on my papers and
book in everything from American grammar to phosphorylation.
You may see this as a one-way process; as I said, I have not had much
time to contribute anything myself, that I know of, _to_ the list...
But your ideas and your views and your books and your information have
gone forward with me, into the channels of 'the establishment', into
hospitals and schools and clinics where I lecture and work, onto BBC
World + News24 TV, into documentaries, books, a registered charity, and
other, hands-on, patient treatment projects which you may well never
hear of, but that does not mean that they are not going on.
You have changed me, from a man living in hope, to a man living in
optimistic determination, who is now about to throw his life, and life
savings (and those of several of his friends!) into Extropian projects
: )
...I hope you all realize that all this success is entirely ExI's fault.
Anyone who feels guilty should apologize to a big bunch of blind folks
who now have text to speech, thanks to this list, the patients we have
on CR, thanks to this list, who are getting better quicker, and the
producer of the documentary we are making, thanks to this list, about
the sudden increase in public interest in 'Extropian' issues,
and...(send me an SAE and I'll forward a full list of people to
apologize to).
Extropes, you've been more than an example to me, you've been the family
and the teachers and the friends I somehow managed to bypass in my youth.
To quote an old Irish song...
"You've made me, for better or worse, the fool that I am or the
wise man I'll be".
...'Thank you' is totally inadequate...
AR
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jul 17 2003 - 07:38:15 MDT