From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Sun Dec 23 2001 - 00:23:39 MST
Olga,
I am very glad you asked the questions you did as I think at
least some of them are very important.
Sometimes I feel as if there is a bit of undercurrent here at
times that might be expressed (if given voice) as "The world and
all its problems can go hang as long as I survive and the
technology moves along fast enough and is accessible enough that
I can continue to survive and progress personally." This
undercurrent, to the extent it is accurate, can lead to rather
glib responses to some types of problems imho. And I agree that
such do us no good. I will go further and say that I think many
of them and of this "me-centric" attitude are great dangers to
our fondest hopes.
> I personally am very interested in what progress may bode for humas (and
> posthumans) in the future, but what prevents me from calling myself an
> extropian are the somewhat (from my perspective) odd mixture of politics.
> Ayn Rand, for instance. She's on the extropian reading list. Er.... isn't
> she considered a joke? (I read a lot of Ayn Rand in college many years ago,
She is certainly not considered a joke by by many of us who have
read and studied her fiction and non-fiction works. I disagree
with some of her axioms and with several places I believe she
was not balanced in her reasoning, but I greatly admire the
intellectual strength and courage that she demonstrated. She
thought through the implications of a great many things that
most people, including many prominent intellectuals, blithely
considered gospel truth.
> so I'm not unfamiliar with her writings, but to take her seriously...yipes!)
If you can refute her philosophy in its most general terms
(especially if her starting axioms are acceptable to you) I will
be greatly surprised. You probably can refute her on specific
points.
- samantha
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