Spreading better memes (Re: Can Extropianism and Islam coexist?)

From: Cory Przybyla (recherchetenet@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Mar 28 2003 - 18:58:44 MST

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    --- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> wrote:
    > All Abrahamic religions followed faithfully, and all
    > religions
    > followed fanatically, are anti-Extropian.
    > <snip>
    > Yes, we should be fighting such insidiously evil
    > ideas, by
    > spreading better ones.

    What are recommendations for the best way to spread
    transhuman memes to the more resistant population,
    which also seems to be in the vast majority?

    As a younger member, and still in the process of my
    education, I've been doing my mild part to the cause
    by presenting in my casual day-to-day conversations a
    pro-technology view by sharing possible scenarios from
    novels like Neal Stephenson's, loaning out my copy of
    Physics of Immortality (I've gotten atleast 3 people
    to actively get into it...it's a start anyway),
    sometimes quoting some of the more optimistic ideas I
    see on this list. Supporting the idea of life
    extention sometimes. Etc...

    The reactions though are dissapointing at best. Most
    people tend to think I'm just being silly and joke
    that "they'll go down on record as saying that I'm
    crazy". Some extreme cases get caught up in some
    detail that they find morally repulsive. I just had a
    rather educated professor say, "because of Saddam,
    that's why we need to ban cloning right away, imagine
    the horror if there were 20 of him around", and I
    asked: yes, she was serious. Some people agree, but I
    see a trend that they also happen to be
    semi-introverted techies already, and prone to memes
    similar to transhumanism.

    Right now it's the worst since because of political
    tensions resounding through every walk of life, people
    are stuck into quasi-religious states over
    conservatism/liberalism and if ANY of the suggested
    things challenges their predisposed notions, they get
    hostile.

    Now I know a lot of people on this list have probably
    had successes dealing with the
    professional/intelligensia, but since we definetely
    need as least some of the working class, the middlemen
    of society (I'm not being insulting, I'm one of them),
    to come around I'd like to know if anyone has had much
    success intriguing people on transhuman memes. Or if
    anyone just has suggestions on things to say, ways to
    approach this.

    thanks,

    Cory

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