Re: The Extropian Principles

Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Tue, 20 Aug 1996 23:48:33 -0700 (MST)


My thanks to Tom and Eric for their comments. As I get to work on the
Principles 3.0 more, I'll ask for more feedback.

At 09:01 PM 8/20/96 -0700, Eric Watt Forste wrote:
>I take it that notions such as "limitless improvement" or "unlimited
>progress" necessarily imply self transformation, and that this can be
>explained in the accompanying text, right? I can see some advantages of
>dropping self transformation from the mnemonic set, but I'd hate to abandon
>the idea entirely.

Exactly. Self-transformation would be one of the major ideas coming under
"Limitless Improvement" or "Boundless Improvement". ST would be one of the
main sub-parts of that principle.

>At 8:48 PM 8/19/96, T0Morrow@aol.com wrote:
>>
>>LI = limitless improvement
>> SO LIBIDO!
>
>I do prefer the phrase "limitless improvement" to the phrase "boundless
>improvement", but I'm a bit wary of the proposed mnemonic.

I'm also wary of the mnemonic. It makes you think too much about something
hardly central to the principles. I do like "limitless" instead of
"boundless" though. While "boundless" is effective, Eric has an excellent
point about the annoying tendency of people to invent/confuse a principle of
"boundless optimism".

>I'm wary of this particular mnemonic because extropians are already being
>accused of being sex maniacs in other forums.

Or else of hating sex and anything physical!

>I like "unlimited progress"... it's frank and to the point, and ties
>extropian ideas a little more closely to their classical-liberal roots than
>"limitless improvement".

I prefer "improvement" though I'll consider "progress".

>I don't care for "boundless evolution" at all, because I think it's
>important to keep the biologists, who realize that "evolution" is a
>value-neutral term.

I agree. I considered "evolution" for a second but immediately rejected it.

Upward and Outward!

Max

Max More, Ph.D.
maxmore@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President: Extropy Institute (ExI)
Editor: Extropy
310-398-0375
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore/extropy.htm