From: jfbusby (busbyjf@cox.net)
Date: Wed Mar 26 2003 - 08:34:01 MST
Brett
Well said.
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Paatsch" <paatschb@ocean.com.au>
To: <extropians@extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 5:13 PM
Subject: Can we have a civilization please?
> Extropes,
>
> This list brings together thoughtful intelligent people from
> different parts of the world all of whom have some things
> in common. I don't know that everybody that posts
> here would chose to describe themselves as an extropian
> but I do suspect that most would find some resonance with
> the ExI Principles or with the discussions that normally take
> place here, otherwise why would they be here?R
>
> Personally I don't think that people who have an affinity with
> the Extropian Principles are going to see their aspirations
> fulfilled by looking to find an oasis from the realities of the
> wider world but similarly we here are for the most part not
> the prime instigators of the problems most of us see in that
> wider world either. Let's make our points, lets be critical
> of society, of policy and of our own ideas, but let's not forget
> that simply because we talk mostly about what we disagree
> about, there is a great deal that we do agree about.
>
> Let's say for argument sake that a particular future that
> crystallised is one where radical life extension does not arrive
> in time for this generation to be "immortalised" without a period
> of "dormancy" or "stasis". That instead intelligent technology is
> trawling through the records of conversations had on the internet
> with a view to deciding which folks should be "re-animated" first
> or even can be safely "re-animated" at all. In a time when the
> current circumstances of the world have moved on and all that
> that intelligence is looking for is the way we conducted ourselves
> in that time would the posts that we make now stand in our
> favour then?R
>
> It is one thing to imagine a beneficent future intelligence willing to
> give its predecessors a chance at further experience. Its quite
> another to imagine that that intelligence would want to re-
> activate every single vector of bigotry, small-mindedness and
> meanness.
>
> I am not saying that that is what is being evidenced on this list,
> or indeed other lists whose participants are finding themselves
> engaging on the issues of the day with more than the usual amount
> of emotion and vitriol. I am saying that what we say is going onto
> a record and we might do well to consider that.
>
> On this list we are networked in some ways into the realities of
> each other. Current circumstances being emotionally charged
> provide excellent opportunities to learn, to better understand and
> to look for solutions.
>
> Civilization is a bootstrapping process. Let's find ways to be part
> of the forward momentum and try not to be part of the drag.
>
> Regard,
> Brett Paatsch
>
> Ps: Now I really am off (not just the soapbox) but for the
> weekend.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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