From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Jun 22 2001 - 14:28:50 MDT
Al Billings wrote:
>
> Samantha wrote:
>
> > Al Billings wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I think he'd be quite comfortable here....
> > >
> > > Probably not since he had a sense of the spiritual.
> > >
> >
> > There are those of us here who have that also. Did you think we
> > were all filtered out?
>
> People like Mike and others would like us to be... Transhumanism has no
> place for spirituality in their minds. That is the main reason why I never
> considered myself an Extropian over the last 10 years.
Depends what you mean, Al. If you mean in a paranormal/supernatural
sense, I think you'll get somewhere near 100% agreement among
extropians, with the sole exception being the "we are living in a
simulation" hypothesis, which requires that there be some computer/sysop
who is the 'god' of this universe. If you mean in the new age freaky
huggy shamanistic mumbo jumbo superstition sort of spiritualism, then
you are quite right, all the better to avoid being condemned as a 'cult'
by the likes of you and others....
I think that a great number of us share a great joy and wonder at the
universe and its varied phenomena. We don't think that understanding
those phenomena 'kills the magic' like so many self described
'spiritual' people complain. A number of us are quite creative artists,
musicians, and writers (among other activities) who experience
inspirational feelings on many occasions. As a younger man, I often felt
closest to the 'sim sysop' when carving wide turns down a bowl of fresh
powder snow, with the snow still falling and all sound suppressed by the
environment. Today I usually get it when I write a particularly apt
phrase or apply a particularly apt blend of color to some artwork. That
sort of thing has nothing to do with religion, dogma, superstition, or
any of that garbage, it just is.
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