RE: The Extropian Principles

Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Fri, 20 Sep 1996 09:25:39 -0700 (MST)

At 07:24 PM 9/18/96 +0200, Anders Sandberg wrote:
>On Wed, 18 Sep 1996, Jeff Dee wrote:
>
>> When I first saw the term 'spontaneous order' on various Extropian web
pages, it
>> immediately evoked in me thoughts of complexity theory, emergent
behavior, and
>> the process of evolution. But I get the impression that among Extropians
it's
>> generally used as a term for a certain kind of social order, or process
of arriving at
>> a social order.
>
>Well, I get the impression that this is just the application that is of
>most interest to many extropians (or at least produces the most
>postings). Spontaneous order has some interesting implications in AI and
>medicine too... (just look at the complexity of the brain - produced by
>the interaction of a few hundred neurotrophic factors!).

Anders is quite right. Spontaneous order interests us for its many
applications, including agoric computing, its evolutionary applications,
application to understanding the brain, etc., as well as its importance in
understanding economic and social coordination processes.

I summarized much of this in my essay "Order Without Orderers" back in
Extropy #7 (Spring 1991). This issue is still available. (It also includes
Simon Levy's "Neurocomputing: Self-Organization in Artificial Neural
Networks." I will make the S.O. essay available in the back issues section
of the Extropy Institute Web site in the next couple of weeks or so.

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