From: Fractal A. (fractala@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jun 05 2001 - 13:52:49 MDT
Hi Extropians!
As a new member of this group, I too had doubts as to the intentions and
purposes of this group. I read materials located on the web page which quelled
most of my doubts. I think that it is awesome to have a place to put all of my
'weirder' ideas--the ones that'll get strange looks and blank stares in the
normal world...(well at least my normal world:).
I didn't catch the beginning of this thread, but I want to comment on this
letter anyways.
--- Ben Goertzel <ben@goertzel.org> wrote:
<<snip>>
> Extropy is just plain NOT a cult. It's silly to say so.
>
> Is it a fringe organization, in some sense? To be sure.
I agree that Extropy is a fringe organization of some sort.
Out of curiosity, what would you say protects the organization from becoming a
cult or a society of people who support and try to propogate a few main or
fundamental ideas? What is the safety against such a possibility?
> Is it bad to be a fringe organization, concerned with things that the
> mainstream of society thinks are weird, wrong, or even dangerous? Well, by
> the standards of anyone except the most rigid conformist, some fringe
> organizations are good, some are bad, and some are just peculiar....
>
> Any group of relatively like-minded people quickly becomes somewhat insular
> and forgets sometimes how the rest of the world thinks.
>
> Webmind Inc. was its own little world, where everyone took for granted
> certain ideas about AI, and we tended to forget that there was a whole AI
> mainstream out there with rather different (and to us, often ridiculous)
> ideas about thinking machines.... Even though we disagreed within Webmind
> Inc., compared to most of the Ai world, we all agreed pretty closely.
>
> I see Extropy as being a bit like Webmind Inc. in this way, though broader
> in its focus.
>
> Some detractors called the Webmind AI Development group a "cult" with me as
> the demagogic leader.
Good point on the relative like-mindedness of groups. I appreciate this
comparison to Webmind AI Development Group. I'd like to find this group. Do
you have an address for it?
> So, it seems to be like this:
>
> 1) if you don't gather a group of people with similar orientations together,
> you can't achieve much of anything
>
> 2) if you do, you're accused of forming a cult and being a cult leader ;)
LOL, I like this thinking too!
> > > Max More and his Extropian Principles. All bow before Max's wisdom...
>
> Hmm. Maybe you should keep your kinky fantasies to yourself... ;p
ROFL
<<snip>>
Thanks!
Fractal A.
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