I'd like to clarify the following matters on which I have received questions or suggestions:
Q1: Are you going to keep the rest of us filled in on what's happening? A1: I'm thinking of a weekly summary posted to the Extropians list, perhaps with content summarized, proprietary ideas removed, and names stripped. I'll bring it up with the other members once the list is launched.
Q2: Do you accept lurkers?
A2: There are no "lurkers" or "posters", only Singularitarians. If
you're trying to bring about the Singularity, and you're interested in
giving help, or receiving help, or just knowing what other people are
doing, you're welcome on the list - even if you don't see any reason to
post for the next five years. But if you're just curious, then - let's
see if I can express this in English - the additional differential of
{probable help you provide}, between {your being on the list}, and {your
reading the weekly summary}, is outweighed by the differential of {other
Singularitarians' willingness to share proprietary ideas}.
Q3: Isn't the correct-spelling requirement a bit anglocentric? A3: A member is required to be *capable* of spelling correctly, but not necessarily in English - we will certainly excuse non-native speakers who are kind enough to translate for us. The secondary reason for the requirement is that the one's effort of writing saves the many the effort of reading; for a non-native speaker, the effort required is incommensurate with the effort saved. The primary reason for the requirement is that it provides an easy cluefulness metric, which obviously doesn't apply to non-native speakers.
Q4: Is the list only for rich folks?
A4: The list is not "only" for venture capitalists; it is also for
volunteers, writers, students, researchers, advisors, etc. But the list
*is* intended to be of sufficiently high quality that even people whose
time is valuable will be able to read it.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/AI_design.temp.html
http://pobox.com/~sentience/singul_arity.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.