RE: Time.com asks you to vote for most dangerous country

From: Dickey, Michael F (michael_f_dickey@groton.pfizer.com)
Date: Wed Feb 05 2003 - 12:40:45 MST

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    -----Original Message-----
    From: Max M [mailto:maxmcorp@worldonline.dk]

    "But what I really don't understand is that there is a relatively large
    group here that practically *only* discuss politics. I frankly cannot see
    why they should choose to do it here. There must be more interresting venues
    for that. It seems to me that the extropians list is really two lists. One
    where politics are discussed, and one where extropian ideas are discussed.
    And rarely does the two groups overlap."

    Your statement seems to imply that politics and extropian ideals are not
    related. I can not think that anything would be further from the truth.
    The two are intimately and intrinsically linked. You should instead say
    'one list where extropian political ideas are discussed' and 'one list where
    extropian science and technological ideas are discussed' But often these
    will overlap, as in the discussion on nuclear power. As I said in my post
    to Amara on this subject

    "Bringing about a better world for all humans is not only going to happen
    through science and technology, but will necessarily require changes in
    politics, economics, and the humanities, and as such a concentrated effort
    to bring about that better world will necessarily require discussions of
    those topics."

    As Extropy Vice Pres Greg Burch said on this topic

    "First, I've asked myself the question of whether the subject of the Iraq
    war has a sufficiently transhumanist or extropian component to warrant such
    a huge portion of the bandwidth here. In many ways, the subject is skew to
    extropians interests, since the potential combatants on both sides have so
    little sympathy for extropian ideas and ideals. But, ultimately I suppose
    there is sufficient relevance to the reason for this List's existence to
    tolerate such a large volume of discussion: To name just three, questions of
    war and peace on such a scale can effect that march of progress toward a
    transhuman world, the evolution of methods of warfare will be relevant to
    our interests, and the geopolitical alignment of the large interest groups
    in the world over the next few decades will certainly have an impact on our
    goals. "

    If you have a plan to achieve a singularity, or a better world in general,
    that does not have anything to do with politics, I would love to hear it.
    There will be no singularity if computers are outlawed and we are all
    reduced to substinence agriculture.

    Michael Dickey

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