From: Corwyn J. Alambar (nettiger@best.com)
Date: Tue Sep 12 2000 - 11:45:34 MDT
Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>
> Waldemar Ingdahl wrote:
> >
> > Houston we've most definitively got a problem.
> >
> > Rather I think that a more intellectual approach is needed, and a move away
> > from activism.
> >
> > Views?
>
> I can't dissagree more. All that Extropy has been to date is an intellectual
> exercise by some professional scholars and their armchair adherents. Our
> positions get pummelled in the media without opposition by any extropian
> activists whatsoever. There is no extropian activist organization, no
> fundraising mechanism. We could not possibly be any farther from activism than
> we are now.
Not activists indeed... Othe rpeopel have commented about the strong
libertarian thread that runs throught his discussion - as I asked in another
post, what is the relevance of the guns discussion to extropianism? As far as
I know, we are one of the larger public faces of extropianism - and here we
sit around and bash democracy and government, and harp on gun rights that are
enjoyed almsot nowhere else in the world.
I would imagine an "activist Extropian" would be espousing and acting in a more
future-oriented method, e.g. lobbying for funding into age research, cloning,
stem cell research, increased funding for pure science research, against NASA
budget cuts, for things sch as the privitization of space exploration, etc.
They wouldn't be sitting around complaining so much about gun laws. That's
what the NRA is for.
For many, judging from the volume of posts, libertarianism and extropianism go
hand in hand. But it is not the sort of thing that is written in stone.
Extropianism could develop its own form of political philosophy, though
primarily we're more interested in the notion of futurist development rather
than current political events except where they intersect our goals.
Here's an idea - an extropian charity. We have a few Foundations already;
let's work to try and come up with a fund to either "adopt a researcher" or
"adopt a test subject", helping pay for the costs of drugs or treatment for
the subject of, say, anti-aging research, or for some of the laboratory
equipment, publishing fees, etc. for a researcher. This could expand further
as more money became available - and it would be an unequivocal statement of
our position in the War on Death.
-Corey
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