"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Charlie Stross wrote:
> >
> > So, your question for $64K: why is Extropianism so overtly associated
> > with unmitigated optimism that it's seen as a joke in some circles?
>
> I don't think anyone could accuse me of being purely optimistic. I take
> pride in pointing out an ominous cloud of doom whenever I'm the first to
> spot it. Am I to be condemned solely because I think that there exists a
> significant chance that humanity will make it through this okay? I
> certainly don't think that anyone could accuse me of encouraging a
> passive, lay-back-and-wait-for-the-Singularity attitude.
And frankly, the sort of people who consider it a joke are the sort of
'sky is falling' pessimists who've bought into the Malthusian Lie, to
such an extent that I consider THEM the joke. They might as well just
euthanize themselves now and save us all the bother so we can get on
making the future.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:19 MDT