Re: Gardening is Extropian (was) Are you an extropian? Re: Voluntary simplicity

From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Wed Jun 07 2000 - 22:37:18 MDT


My understanding is that you have only recently subscribed to this list,
mainly because you discovered that a lot of the topics under discussion
were interesting for you. I guess about 3 years ago I was in the same
situation. I ran across the list after reading an article in Wired
magazine, subscribed to it, and really enjoyed the messages. I felt at
home here with a lot of other people who were interested in all manner
of tech, life extension, self improvement, etc. etc. The idea of extropy,
and later on, the singularity, made sense to me- like I already knew it
instinctively but never had put all the pieces together or had come up
with a word for it.

And gradually the optimism has infected me, mirrored by developments in
my life, to the point that only now would I be willing to call myself
a real extropian/singularitarian. There really is (as best said in The
Matrix :-) a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
You can be aware of the ideas espoused here, yet live your life in a
completely different manner. You can read about skydiving yet never
go do it. You can come up with a great idea, yet never take the risks
involved with building a business around it.

Basically what I am saying is it takes time to really sink in, even
if you are familiar with the ideas. It just takes awhile to really
reorder your thoughts into this different outlook and commit to living
this way. My advice is to keep lurking and digesting what you read.
Eventually you either will become disinterested in the list, or you
will go in the opposite direction and probably start having some
epiphanies as to possible new things you can do. Those things and
ideas would be what we all can give you advice on if you like.

altamira wrote:
>
> OK Brian, I'll ask for advice: please tell me what you think I should do to
> improve my personal extropy.
>
> Thank you,
> Bonnie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.com
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.com]On Behalf Of Brian Atkins
> You would think any real extropian would love to hear ways to increase
> their "personal extropy". Why aren't we having discussions on the list
> about how to be more extropian? We have sublists such as the investing-
> node where people can discuss strategies, but in general the people
> on this list seem remarkably unwilling to publicly discuss or ask for
> advice on ways they might improve themselves.



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