From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 31 2000 - 13:31:57 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
>Many of the areas where extropians are different from other people lie in
>scenarios that will be exotic and unfamiliar. Concepts like uploading,
>singularity, AI, nanotech, intellectual and physical augmentation, will
>all be new to most people. It may well be that an initial negative
>reaction to these proposals is due as much to questions of fact as to
>values. With sufficient discussion and dialogue, it may be possible to
>overcome people's initial "instinctive" aversion to extropian scenarios.
It seems to me that many of the people who dislike these concepts have
taken some time to become familiar with them. What fraction of "random"
people who one of us forces to become familiar with these concepts
comes to endorse them? We should by now have enough experience telling
our spouses, friends, coworkers, etc. about these ideas to estimate this.
If the fraction is small, it becomes harder to attribute most negative
reactions to simple ignorance and risk-averse avoidance of the unfamiliar.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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