Re: META: New horizons for the Extropians list

Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Fri, 18 Jun 1999 21:45:55 -0400

On Thursday, June 17, 1999 2:14 am, Max More <max@maxmore.com> wrote:
> I share Harvey's frustration at lack of progress. I won't rehash the
> various reasons for this. I will just note two things:

Max, I am extremely grateful for your calm response. I am indeed frustrated at lack of progress. I'm afraid all my observations came out as harsh criticisms. Rereading them, I find that they sounded much harsher than I intended. It was a reflection of my own frustrations, and not due to you or ExI in any way. I just finished working five 100-hours weeks in a row, and my frustrations momentarily overwhelmed my civility.

I'm afraid that quite a few things have frustrated me recently: the realization that many of the old-timers are off the list, the realization how long the list has been running, the apparent lack of progress when remembering all our early plans, and the recent problems with list members' inability to act civil to one another.

I'm not sure what to do about it, but I get really frustrated at lack of progress in many areas. I get frustrated that many grand ideas never go anywhere. I get frustrated that collections of great minds end up bickering rather than collaborating. I get frustrated that forward-thinking groups often seem indistinguishable from any other flame-fest on the net. Even with all our aspirations, we end up being only human after all. I guess we still have a lot of work to do. 

--
Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.