From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Jan 08 2003 - 03:11:34 MST
On Sun, Jan 05, 2003 at 07:38:23AM -0800, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>
> It seems to me that it might be interesting to develop a ranking
> of least extropic/transhumanistic countries. This is something
> that ExI/WTA could actually *do* to call attention to situations
> where actions by individuals or small groups may be forcing the
> development of subsets of humanity *backwards*.
Overall, an index might be useful. I like the idea (I like indexes. So
much statistics to munch on during the long winter nights...)
I would start by looking at other indexes:
Heritage foundation has a good index of economic freedom
http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/
Freedom House has an index of political freedom:
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/index.htm
http://www.freedomhouse.org/ratings/index.htm
Reporters without borders have a press freedom index:
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4116
Transparency international has an index of corruption (but it is fewer
countries):
http://www.transparency.org/
UNDP has done human development reports which contain many useful
figures (and some strange scalings, caveat lector!):
http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2002/en/indicator/indicator.cfm?File=index.html
The World Values Survey looks at how happy people perceive themselves to
be:
http://wvs.isr.umich.edu/
Academic freedom:
http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/academic/
Cryptography and Liberty 1999:
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/crypto-survey-99.html
Maybe one could use the (old) Hofstede cultural indices too:
http://www.stuart.iit.edu/courses/mgt581/filespdf/numbers.pdf
OK, what to do about it? The best indices are based on a clear rating
system that achieves validity (measures something similar to what we
are asking for) and reliability (measures the same thing in every
country, regardless of cultural differences). I think an extropy index
could be defined in terms of subindices corresponding to the principles.
Some of these indices could be calculated from indices above. Also,
information about legislative pressure, resistance to introduction of
new technology or culture and academic freedom issues could be factored
into the ratings (this is the part where ExI of ActNow would have to do
the most work, but also makes the index more valuable).
Just a few quick ideas.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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