From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Thu Aug 14 2003 - 11:11:27 MDT
Sentdev reporting some rag called the Register:
<<How did it start?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32170.html
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. Revealed to
the world in a Wired article in 1994 as "a philosophy of boundless
expansion, of upward - and outwardness, of fantastic superabundance," their
greeting was described in some quite painful detail, for us, thus:
"Right hand out in front of you, fingers spread and pointing at the sky.
Grasp the other person's right hand, intertwine fingers, and close. Then
shoot both hands upward, straight up, all the way up, letting go at the top,
whooping 'Yo!' or 'Hey!'">>
Well, as long as the group does not succumb to "conformity" issues, its
purported creation is immaterial. The writer is doing a BOE, not based on
experience, but based on envy; which is a hallmark of the UK reportage.' We wish we
were a world power too, and America must be controlled, especially by Laborite
Britain, which is much wiser then the rest of humanity! That is the jist of this
kind of thinking.
There was an interesting sidebar concerning some women in the Silicon Valley
who was getting screwed over, by off-shoring and such; but is that a real
person or a composite, based on journalistic 'license' ?
Attacking Professor Hanson's theories, or suggestions was the weakest point
in the article, and smacked of "different is bad" no matter how good, or poor
the idea is. The idea that people taking bets on what kind of terrorism could
happen, is not calous, but rather a sort of national or international Delphi
Poll, that futurists have used to forecast with, since the early 1960's.
The old saying, that its better to be looked over, then overlooked, seems
valid for Extropes and Transhumanists. Thanks for submitting the article, it was
at least food
for thought!
Mitch
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