From: John Grigg (starman2100@lycos.com)
Date: Sat Aug 09 2003 - 12:27:09 MDT
Article by Andrew Orlowski:
http://dev.null.org/cgi-bin/comment.cgi?it=200308060039_extropian&mc=24a7d24e32
>>>>>>
someone named Mitch wrote:
What happened to the Extropians, those space-bound,
cryogenics-obsessed children of Ayn Rand and the WELL, after the WIRED
Long Boom came crashing down? Well, they've swallowed their
anti-statist convictions and mutated into Strangelovian
*****neo-conservative think-tanks*****, which have the ear of the
President and were behind things such as the aborted terrorism futures
market. Or so Andrew "blogs are killing Google" Orlowski says anyway.
>>>>>>>
I have to admit his turn of words with "what happened to the Extropians, those space-bound, cryogenics obsessed children of Ayn Rand...?" really caught my eye. What more could be added to the list? lol
I hope the more prominent and capable Extropians don't wind up mutating into "neo-conservative think-tanks" which no longer have Extropian ideals and visions dear to their heart. I see Max More and Anders Sandberg, among others, in time facing this temptation.
"So let's meet the brainchild behind PAM, the blond haired and photogenic Robin Hanson, assistant economics professor at George Mason University. With phlegmatic good grace, Hanson announced the news on the Extropian Bulletin Board, that PAM had been axed. Hanson isn't himself an "Extropian", he says, but many of his followers are, so maybe it's a good time you were introduced. And since they're being touted as the radical out-of-the-box thinking that US foreign policy needs, we must not delay."
I've always wanted an article about me which starts out by saying I'm photogenic! lol Oh, well. What's this? Robin is not actually a signed-up Extropian?? He, Damien Broderick, myself and the rest of you better repent...
I still can't get over the left-handed compliments given Extropians by Andrew Orlowski. "We're not sure if they all 185 pounds, but they're certainly very, very rich." If only it were true!! I'm sure Max and Natasha would agree with me on that point. lol
It's a very creative imagination which states "a few years ago a bunch of extremely wealthy Californians met, liked the look of each other a lot, and formed a group called Extropians." HA!! The group of poor college grad students which formed ExI did not quite fit that description.
He continues "Extropianism, we were told, expoused "extremely advanced technology" and displayed "dedicated, immovable optimism". The hated gubberment got it particularly hard from these wealthy uberkinder, for whom the State was "regarded as one of the major restrictive forces in the Milky Way galaxy." I would not say we truly hate the government but it does give good reason to be very disgruntled.
"Employees of the government were mockingly described as "entropians". They felt entitled to mock the poor or stupid, and amongst this self-selecting circle this amounted to almost everyone else, because they were confident they themselves would write the history books." Wow. Orlowski really hits below the belt with this paragraph. I have been fairly faithful about reading the Extrolist for about four years now (and attended the Extro-5 Con) and I have witnessed on the whole a great deal of compassion in the opinions of Extropians regarding the poor and not so bright. They want to raise people up instead of simply putting them down. I would not say this about Mensa or other elitest groups.
"But the most interesting thing about this ersatz cult was the amount of energy that its members devoted to wanting to live forever. To flee the surly bonds of mortality, once and for all, the Extropians devoted much of their disposable income (of which, there was much to dispose) to cryogenic research - deciding how to freeze themselves for eternal life, and deciding who amongst them Shall Be First." "Cult??" Oh, I forgot this is a work of muckraking yellow journalism. "An open society of very enthusiastic and hopeful technophiles who get high off thinking about the future" would have been better in my view.
Again he brings up how Extropians have a great deal of disposable income and that they even donate much of it to cryonics research. Someone please inform Alcor to focus on fundraising among these superrich cult members! : )
"Well, until last week we could dismiss these techno-utopians as a freakish cult, but now we know two things: they have they ear of the Pentagon, and they have powerful defenders in the shape of the New York Times op-ed page, and West Coast columnists. But there's an even more tantalizing narrative we can't entirely ignore."
I had absolutely no idea just how politically powerful ExI had gotten! We have obviously taken our place among the Illuminati in the ruling of the world. Robert Anton Wilson will have to take this into consideration with his next book. But seriously, it does show the strength of the organization by having people of Robin Hanson's caliber associate with it.
"How is this so? If you want to be a Gillmor, you have to trust someone else to come up with the answer. However economists who want to ask why, and probe a little further, and ask why our economies keep failing, and our bubble keep bursting, typically don't get the opportunities that Hal Varians enjoy. There isn't an awful lot of money to sustain bad news bears. Some might even want to probe even deeper, and ask how we can maintain sustainable development, or even hope to motivate and train a prosperous middle class."
"The Extropian answer is simple: such dunderheads will be left behind as we all lift off into space, making giddy whooping noises as we ascend."
This part of Orlowski's article shows an apparent achille's heel in how people often view extropianism/transhumanism. We are seen as having our "heads in the clouds" with futurist scenarios bordering or surpassing most SF, while people in the real world suffer a multitude of economic, social and physical maladies. What could we do here and now to change this?
I hope to see ExI, Pro-Act and The Society for Venturism do their part.
best wishes,
John
Venturist
www.venturist.org
www.creeksidepreserve.com
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