>I agree with Max's general point here, and in fact I wonder if there
>shouldn't be something about critical thinking and skepticism added
>to the Extropian Principles. It's great to be optimistic, energetic,
>and future oriented, but at the same time you have to be very careful
>that you don't get sucked into some seductive but misleading ideas.
An interesting resource I came across a few months ago is the Foundation for
Critical Thinking, based in Santa Rosa. Their website is
http://www.sonoma.edu/cthink/
I ordered a book they publish called _Critical Thinking: What Every Person
Needs to Know to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World_ -- sounds like a
Singularity survival guide ;-> -- by Dr. Richard Paul, apparently one of the
key members of the organisation. It's quite good, though as basically a
collection of previously-published academic papers there's a fair amount of
repetition in it. Paul really lays into the traditional North American K-12
education system, so his target audience appears to be teachers and other
educators. Worth reading, though.
------
Ken Kittlitz ken@kumo.com
http://www.lucifer.com/~ken
Kumo Software Corp. http://www.kumo.com
Ideosphere Inc. http://www.ideosphere.com