From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 05 2003 - 13:02:56 MDT
Mr. Orlowski,
I must seriously object to the many bigoted and offensive things you
wrote in your piece on Robin Hanson and the transhumanist movement.
Just where do you get off writing hate speech which would get you
prosecuted if you were talking this way about blacks, hispanics, or
women? All that aside, I think you should be aware of the many
innacuracies in your article:
Inaccuracy #1: Extropians are wealthy.
This is quite untrue. While some have made enough money from dot com
ventures to be financially secure, most have not. I myself am a former
tech writer working as a diesel mechanic. Many extropians are grad or
undergrad college students, quite poor or scraping by, and staying in
school because the job market stinks so badly.
Inaccuracy #2: Robin Hanson is wealthy.
Robin, who I know personally, is hardly wealthy. He supports a wife and
two kids on the salary of an assistant professor. The only wealth he
has is the immense number of friends he has and admirers of his many
contributions to his field.
Inaccuracy #3: Extropians are all white.
This is the worst sort of racist backhanded accusation. There are a
number of extropians who are black, hispanic, asian, native american,
among many other nationalities and ethnicities, as well as sexual
preferences and genders. And even if we were all straight white males,
does this automatically make us deserving of your hate? Are we all part
of the oppressor class simply because of our genes? I myself never
inherited anything, dropped out of college (twice now) due to finances,
and the highest leadership positions I've held were on the board of
directors of my local gun club and as an executive of a company I once
helped found.
The fact is, as was plain in your article, was that you couldn't find
much that other people had to say that was bad about us or Robin, so
you had to make up a bunch of absolute garbage in your typically
cynical vulturous tabloid journalist way.
As for the PAM, here is a rhetorical question for you to ponder: How
are individuals betting on the PAM futures market any less morbid than
you buying an insurance policy on your spouse's life???? That is, after
all, what you are doing when you buy insurance: you are betting that
something bad is going to happen, and you get paid off if you are
right.
The PAM only serves as a means to bribe terrorists to become informers
on their comrades, thus useful in preventing the events they are meant
to predict. Note that an informer on PAM would get paid whether the
ATTEMPT succeeds or not. Arafat needent be assasinated, so long as an
attempt is made.
In this light, it actually seems that the PAM is actually LESS morbid
than you getting life insurance on your spouse. With your insurance,
your spouse HAS to die. With PAM, (s)he would only need to be in a
situation where she MIGHT have died.
I think you owe an apology to Robin and extropians in general.
Michael S. Lorrey
Extropian
Member, Free State Project
Founder, Galts Gulch Project
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