At 01:02 PM 6/23/99 -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
>
>Actually, I think more people are into Extropianism for the technology
>fields that I listed. I think that the political aspects are secondary.
>Isn't ExI supposed to be more of a think tank rather than a political
>organization?
Ideally, yes. That is why I'm here at least.
Nonetheless, I've never heard of a think tank that doesn't have some minimal political bias, even if unintentional. This is why you can have two think tanks that claim to be working towards the same goals while still being diametrically opposed in principle. People tend to pick organizations that are of interest to them AND discuss the topics from a social/economic/political viewpoint that is compatible with theirs.
On the upside, the extropians seem to be one of the few "think tanks" that is willing to spend time attacking the premises of these viewpoints themselves. Still, I tend to agree with general assessment that extropians are "libertarian transhumanists". If others see it that way, then it has a political element, whether we want it or not.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com