`extropianism'? (was: Re: Are Extropians promoters of an ascetic ideal and alienation?)

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 20:49:20 MDT

  • Next message: Brett Paatsch: "Re: `extropianism'? (was: Re: Are Extropians promoters of an ascetic ideal and alienation?)"

    At 06:08 PM 8/3/03 -0700, Natasha wrote:

    > Extropy Institute prefers not
    >to use "ism" for the extropian philosophy.

    Natasha has made this lexical point repeatedly of late. It reminds me of my
    own irritation when most people use `sci fi' for what I and almost everyone
    inside the science fiction community have always called `sf' or `SF'; or
    when I hear `deconstructionism' instead of `deconstruction'. These
    distinctions strike outsiders as utterly inconsequential, and insisting on
    them as laughable, but I can't help myself. Still--

    In the case of `extropy', I find it hard to see how this recently coined
    noun has any special claim to group-membership status. The usual patterns
    in German (I think) suggest that the equivalent term for extropy theory in
    that language would be `extropismus', akin to `extropism' in English--as
    indeed it does seem to be used in Europe--and I admit that's rather ugly.
    Most people here are extropians, not extropists, although some are
    exhibitionists. But I suppose the point isn't the *word* as such, it's the
    automatic implication of group-think that goes with any -ism. At least
    nobody has yet suggest Extropianity. :)

    Damien Broderick



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