I too have often wondered why there aren't any real concrete action plans or
organizations within the extropian community.
As a whole, there is a tremendous amount of intelligence and intellectual
capacity on this list. Individually, I suspect that most of the people on
this list have considerably more motivation and intelligence than the
average person on the street, and many have demonstrated an impressive array
of talents.
As much as I like the kind of random wanderings of topics on this list, I
often wonder what we could accomplish if we focused on a goal more specific
than "promoting extropianism" and discussing "extropian topics". I believe
that with motivation, focus, and organization we could very possibly become
a think-tank with unprecedented productive capabilities and intellectual
prowess. If we could harness the vast capability of the people on this
list, I believe there is very little that we could not accomplish.
Instead of just discussing specific problems or issues, we should
agressively pursue and attack these issues. We should be more aggressively
involved in research. I think far more people would be interested in
extropianism if we had concrete accomplishments and active, productive research.
As Eliezer mentioned, we should start building concrete plans towards
concrete goals. The first step of accomplishing anything is to set a
concrete goal, and the next step is to develop a concrete plan on how to get
there. I'm just curious, but has any extropian or group of extropians
started a company devoted to developing extropian technologies (or for that
matter, started any company at all)? This might not only advantageous to
the extropian "cause", but it might be profitable as well. I am sure there
is enough experience on this list to start almost any type of venture. I
personally have started a couple high-tech startups, and it isn't terribly
difficult, or even necessarily too expensive, although it is time consuming.
Being actively involved in any technology industry allows one to subtly (or
not so subtly) introduce new concepts and influence ideas. Extropianism
could spread almost subliminally in the guise of useful products with
embedded extropian themes. Additionally, this would give extropians more
influence and money that would allow more effective spreading of extropian
ideas and concepts. Prominent individuals promoting extropianism could be
very effective. If extropians could become successful or wealthy, this
would add prominence to the organization.
Also, has anyone ever tried to organize some type of extropian community (in
a physical, not virtual sense)? Or maybe something like Arcosanti? I feel
that there is a certain limit to the impact a loose-knit, philosophical
organization can have if they don't have any physical presence or direction.
We need something concrete that people will associate with extropians.
Right now, it is just "that philosophical organization".
I guess it is kind of like the old capitalist saying "It takes money to make
money". We have ideas, we just need to work on building something concrete
with them. Once the ball is rolling, extropian influence and ideas will
spread much more quickly. The more extropians there are and the more
influence extropian ideas have, the easier it will be to gain additional
influence and "converts". The difference between self-made millionaires and
everyone else is that the millionaires took action while most everyone else
simply talks about taking action.
This should be enough rambling for one post ;)
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com