This evening the inner circle of Excedo met in Utrecht to socialize,
eat/drink and discuss plans. Aside from the usual discussions about all
kinds of ideas and technologies (some explanations on the bean-stalk were
in order ;-) we also did some practical work.
Henri has been working on our website (not just him, but he did most of the
work). Soon it will be launched, including an english part. Both Berrie and
Dalibor have made contributions to the site in the form of articles, some
of it will be translated to english as soon as we get the basics
up-and-running. Since Berrie is a bit overworked and I'm back in the
world/normal life, I'll be taking over the work he started on the creation
of a single document to bring 'newbies' up-to-speed on the basics of
Transhumanism and Extropy. For us this will be most usefull to introduce a
whole 'package' of memes to potential new members. Personally it think it
would be a great idea to have a single text that contains all the basic
stuff we more or less agree on. Emphasizing the similarities between the
various local Transhumanist organisations would help in positioning
Transhumanism as a truly global movement.
There are already many good texts on the web that will provide pieces of a
general introductory text, I'll cook up something this week, post it and
hope it will grow into something usefull with help of many thinkers and
writers on this list.
We are all very enthousiastic about a European network/list/gathering.
Aside from sharing of information and social events we could cooperate on a
legal and organisational framework for Cryo-suspension. Dalibor den Otter
is now a full-fledged Alcor member (first in the Netherlands!) and is very
anxious to get underway with the practical problems of creating a 'rescue
service' for European Alcor members. We still have a long way to go on the
European mainland before anyone can feel safe that reaction-time willl be
short enough and all authoroties will cooperate in allowing a person to be
suspended. Dutch law at this point does not allow freezing deanimated
persons or storing them in a privately owned facility. We're going to work
on influencing the media and institutions like the Dutch Cancer Foundation
who have contacts with many politicians. Meanwhile we'll all get a mobile
phone, carry a document with instructions and keep our fingers crossed ;-)
We also discussed changing the name of the society because some people
think it might be confused with Extropy (both have Ex in 'em). Any ideas
(English or Latin) are welcome and will be considered. We'll keep you
informed.
More on all this later, now my limited body needs to get a few hours sleep,
I have a meeting in five hours :-(
greetings,
Arjen
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Arjen Kamphuis | "Don't be afraid to go out on a limb...
mountain@knoware.nl | that's where the fruit is."