Re: Public Relations (and the Extropian Elite)

James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Mon, 19 Jan 1998 23:02:41 -0800


At 09:31 PM 1/19/98 -0500, Howard Rothenburg wrote:
>On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 18 Jan 1998, Howard Rothenburg wrote:
>>
>>
>> > If the research is to happen according to the ideas stated in this
>> > list, then the people who believe in that research will need to pool
>>
>> Aw, come on. No community of this size can finance any R&D effort, however
>> pathetic. Have a look at the cryonics crowd.
>
>Maybe you are right, and we are too small to affect the outcome. But
>since a variety of high tech. startups exist now and we can invest in
>them, I think that, with their incremental increase in funding, extropians
>could support the research areas that they favor.

These types of comments have been bounced around on this list for a while
and I have a few comments that I think are very relevant to the issues here.

This community *is* large enough to effect significant change in the world
of technology. The big problem is that everyone on this list seems to want
to make huge leaps in technology, rather than following a more incremental
path. While huge leaps are great, it is highly unlikely and financially
unsound as an investment.

There are numerous, profitable markets between here and singularity. Don't
invest in nanotech, invest in a company that creates protein modeling
software. It is unlikely that we will invent nanotech before we can
properly model complex organics. As much as we would like to ignore it,
there is a great deal of continuity in technological progress. If you want
to accelerate the outcome, work on fixing the more short-term technology
problems and make a little money while you are at it. Not only is it
generally more profitable, but a lot more people will be willing to invest
in your ideas.

-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com