From: Spike (spike66@comcast.net)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2003 - 20:38:09 MDT
On Wed, Jul 16, 2003 at 07:26:37AM -0400, Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> Spike wrote,
> > In June we had the quietest time I recall having
> > seen on extropians in over 6 years...spike
>
> Heh. You have a strange sense of humor.
Harvey, you are too kind bud. {8-]
>
> Seriously, I don't think the list has yet recovered from the latest
> flame-war and series of personal attacks that caused ExI to start
> moderating again...
Is that why we did that? I was wondering.
Curious, tho, we have had several flamefests
way worse than the one that broke out in May
and June. I need to check it however, for
I was having a lot of computer problems then
and much of my email was being automatically
deleted, so I mighta missed it.
In any case, this is extropians. We are
famous for flaming each other's brains out, then
going on the next day as if nothing happened.
What changed?
I had an idea that has been bothering me. We
are seeing a recession that won't go away and
a future that none of us expected. The late
90s was a time that was perfect for best-do-it-so
attitudes, was it not? We had a notion that
the growth rate we were seeing was a runup
before the singularity.
Now we realize that the growth rates in just
about anything related to the internet was all
Worldcom-generated fiction, so much smoke and
mirrors. My investment portfolio was a mirror
of the times, and now it is mostly smoke. The
list has a lot of software types, and surely
the professional programmers must be having
a severe case of Custer Syndrome: "Where are
all these frigging Indians coming from?"
Cryonics has had a few setbacks, and it is
becoming clearer all the time that many of our
biotech dreams are going to be fouled up by
several parties, the Greens, the anti-globalists,
Religion Incorporated, the liability lawyers etc.
Perhaps the flamewar was it, but it might just
be the times. Dynamic and practical optimism
has been more difficult in the last couple years,
has it not?
spike
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