From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Mon Aug 11 2003 - 08:44:48 MDT
At 04:16 PM 8/11/03 +1000, Damien wrote:
>At 10:49 PM 8/10/03 -0700, Natasha wrote:
>
> >>label "Extropian" makes people immediately think it's some kind of
> >>californian cult (which are after all quite famous around the world), and
> >>when you say "Well, it is from California, but it's not a cult, really",
> >>people begin nodding slowly backing away, making no sudden movements, you
> >>know the drill.
>
> >Not just California type of group, but any local.
>
>The alleged sophomoric `extropian handshake' gag (it *was* a gag, wasn't
>it, a leg-pull on a poor gullible journalist? or was everyone young and
>extremely silly?) will continue to come back to haunt ExI and all who sail
>in her, as it did the other day.
When I was in college, I did some pretty silly things in the art
department. I covered an entire floor of the academy and called it
Performance Art. Other things, I'd hardly admit to :-)
When Max started ExI he was at university and in his 20s. The journalist
who wrote "that" article represented extropians as a type of intellectual,
radical group of folks. This was all true. Even though I remained on the
outskirts of extropians at that time (I was more a transhumanist and didn't
fit into the group), I had a lot of respect for these folks. First,
because I had been there and done that radical thang. Second because I was
much older and out of school for quite some time. Regardless, the hand
shake, jokes, radical nature, intellectual debates and very smart ideas
were something that attracted me to Max and extropy.
I think we should just laugh it off as past. Our future will certainly make
all that seem fun, light-hearted, and insignificant.
Natasha
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