From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Feb 04 2003 - 06:47:19 MST
On Tue, Feb 04, 2003 at 10:41:55AM +0200, Amara Graps wrote:
>
> I don't bother discussing at any depth my political philosophy or my
> criticism of the U.S. government here any more, even though I agree
> with most of Hubert's and Kai's and Dan's and Anders' and Damien's
> (etc.) words, because I attracted a cluster of aggressive posters who
> stereotyped and misinterpretted what I wrote, and it was tiring and
> unpleasant to have to defend even the smallest and simplest of
> statements. I know of many others here in the last 1-2 years who have
> left the political discussions for the same or similar reasons. I'm
> very sorry Eugene unsubbed (I'm not a member here either, but look at
> the Javien forum selectively), but I think I understand why he left.
Me too. My participation here has been particularly spotty
recently due to the demand of writing a dissertation and working
for a think tank, but even without these time constraints I would
seriously have considered dropping the list.
What irritates me the most is not the cluster of aggressive
posters - they can be ignored. What really bothers me is the
spread of an attitude. It is an attitude of "hobby
transhumanism", where transhumanism is seen as something cool to
play around with but without real effect on how one lives one's
life. Where is the self-improvement? The most important part
isn't about what supplements to take or how to work out, but how
to extend one's thinking, knowledge and understanding in an
extropic way. I see far too many closed minds, trapped in
conformist politics or standardized worldviews that are not
attempting to grow. I would like to see a list where everyone is
doing their outmost to become more, to come up with *better*
solutions rather than just quoting the solutions others have
talked about forever, and to demonstrate their utility by
reasoned arguments that fitted speaking with a transhuman rather
than a child.
OK, this may be a bit unlikely to just happen. But we can each
hold it as an ideal to strive to wards and make parts of it true.
BTW, Amara, beautiful visualisation of the dust streams!
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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