Re: Excedo: What's in a name?

E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@uniserve.com)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 18:37:54 -0800


Natasha wrote:
>
>>possibly there's someone out there with a
>>brilliant idea that will solve this.
>
>Discuss it with Max. Discuss it in a reasonable manner. Do not go into the
>discussion with preconceived notions. Do go into the discussion with
>flexibility.
>
>Why? Because Max is extremely fair-minded. He has an innate psychological
>quality of honesty and cooperation. He has the keen intellectual ability to
>carefully look at a full picture and long range direction.
>
>He is someone you would want on your team.

Seconded. When an organization such as this is first started, the
thing it needs more than anything else is connections. Open doors are far
more inviting than closed ones, and both Max and Tom obviously want the
door open. However, as Tom iterated in his private posts to Berrie, the
name "Excedo" is too easily associated with Extropy Institute...a
flourishing organization that has been active for a decade. Even if
~Excedo's intentions for the name have been misunderstood, few can argue
against the similarities in both name and intended ideals.
The problem with these similarities have potential drawbacks for
both sides. For ~Excedo, one of the problems that could be encountered is
one of having to explain to all interested parties that there is truly *no*
association between Extropy and ~Excedo; additionally, if people assume
(without actually knowing) that there is some association, they could have
overly high expectations for ~Excedo. Perhaps more importantly is the
potential drawback for ExI. If ~Excedo generates *any* non-extropic ideas
whatsoever (and no-one knows as of yet how extropic ~Excedo's views are),
it could mislead people (through assumptional association) into thinking
that ~Excedo ideals are the same as Extropian ideals. Overall, the
potential confusion isn't necessary.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E. Shaun Russell Poet, Musician, Atheist, Extropic Artist
==============================> Transhumanities editor for Homo Excelsior
Explanation spoils perfection. http://www.excelsior.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------