From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Jan 06 2000 - 08:22:18 MST
Michael Wiik wrote:
>
> I'm not a psychologist, but it strikes me as possible that the recent
> mainstreaming of certain extropian topics (like uploading) on prime time
> television sort of takes the edge of extropianism, as it were. We're no
> longer cutting-edge. We're not all that 'different' anymore.
Quite right. Join the Singularitarians. It should be, oh, at least
another five years, maybe forever, before we lose *our* edge.
> school, look, I have photos.... You know, if Rifkin is delaying the
> singularity, he's killing 150K people every hour, he's more dangerous
> than Hitler and Stalin put together, isn't that so? " Or how about, "
> why aren't you out saving the world instead of eating that sandwich??
> 50K people will die while you eat it, get out there and save them!!!! "
That would be stupid, right? Fortunately we all worship intelligence,
don't we? (Those of you who can't abide the term "worship" may
substitute "have a deep-seated respect for", but "lightning" and
"lightning bug", guys.)
> That doesn't work for me folks. This is how I see it:
> This is the way the world is.
> Things do get better, all the time, maybe just not as fast as I'd like.
> I do what I can.
> Don't ask me to hate, too.
Hear, hear, and add to quotes file.
> Oh, and my sincere regrets to the tens of thousands of people who died
> while I was writing this, instead of doing my work.
The revolution refuses to be distracted.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/beyond.html
Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns Writing in Gender-neutral
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
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