Re: My Fears

From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 18:10:06 MDT

  • Next message: Terry W. Colvin: "FWD [forteana] Uncle Sam's Tough Sell"

    At 10:57 PM 6/2/03 +0200, Anders wrote:

    >Hence we should guard the politeness and intellectual rigor of this
    >salon, make sure the best in us all feels welcome and always seek to
    >contribute great thoughts - or go out and do great deeds based on the
    >thoughts we have overheard.
    >
    >[ ... adjusts his wig and turns to Lady Natasha de Vita-More with a
    >witticism he just overheard from Count von Spike... ]

    In reply, I wave my fan delicately to brush the cool summer air from my
    warm cheek. Without a beat, the sonata echoes its tempo from the veranda
    issuing sounds of reflection and intrigue, ... "Intelligence, my dear, is
    really a kind of taste: taste in ideas."*

    Natasha

    * Susan Sontag

    >I would say this list is a bit like the intellectual salons of the 18th
    >century. A place where people with shared interests meet, discuss, drink
    >virtual coffee and come up with ideas - most of which never lead
    >anywhere. People attending the same salon would tend to share some basic
    >views or assumptions due to self-selection and the normal social
    >pressures limiting too great disagreements, but the remaining spread of
    >knowledge, specialisations and views are rich enough to produce a
    >creative environment. The salons never did anything, really. But the
    >people attending them did, inspired by ideas they got there. Some
    >projects didn't pan out at all. Others succeeded or at least became big
    >- we live in some of them today.
    >
    >I think the extropians list is much in the same vein. The best it can
    >aspire to is to be a great salon. There is a elitistic vision ghosting
    >around in transhumanism that somehow we, we who get it, will be cruicial
    >and lead the great transcension. According to this thought we are
    >essential, so we must all act as one with high quality at the great
    >project, whatever it is (a human pyramid to orbit? ExtroCorp? The
    >million transhuman march?) - it is all about the movement and all its
    >members. But I think this is a mistake; if transhumanism ever leads
    >anywhere it will do it by acting as a source of important ideas and a
    >meeting place of people that later will act together. No need to turn it
    >into the Fifth International.

    Natasha Vita-More
    http://www.natasha.cc
    ----------
    President, Extropy Institute
    http://www.extropy.org
    Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture
    http://www.transhuman.org
    http://www.extropic-art.com
    http://www.transhumanist.biz



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Jun 02 2003 - 16:30:55 MDT