From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Mon Dec 31 2001 - 20:09:00 MST
At 08:33 PM 12/31/01 -0400, Randall wrote:
> > > > [Cryofan] wrote:
> > > > >>Since the Extropian movement is heavily invested in libertarian
> > > > >>philosophy,
> > > >
> > > > Faulty conjecture and bad memetic engineering. If some extropians are
> > > > Libertarian and others Republicans, some Democrats, some are
> > > > a-political, and still others non-party line thinkers, the
> > > > above-statement is an untenable generalization.
> > >
> > >Back when I first heard about extropians, one of the major attractions for
> > >me was the combination of transhumanism and libertarianism. In fact,
> > >that's how I thought of extropians -- as libertarian transhumanists.
> >
> > Why?
>
>Because I am unaware of any other defining trait of extropians, as distinct
>from all transhumanists.
I never figured out why there needed to be a differentiation at this
stage. I consider myself a transhumanist first, and then I'm a member of
Extropy Institute because it's the only corporate organization that has
been working to create a transhumanist movement. The principles work well
for me, and the philosophy seems to pay attention to changing times and
from what I see, is able to keep up and direct itself to the advances quite
nicely.
> > Just because some extropians are libertarian would you think that it
> > was a personality trait of all extropians?
>
>Actually, I don't think of libertarianism as a personality trait at all. I
>think of it as a worldview, preferably one that has been chosen because
>of its consistency and reflection of reality (or how reality seems to the
>libertarian, anyway).
Good, then let' not use it as a defining characteristic of a person. I try
not to get caught up in political philosophies or parties. I'd rather
consider each issue on its own merit and consider the economic trends,
nationally and globally.
> > >I'm not sure what distinguishes extropy from plain transhumanism, if not
> > >advocacy of non-statism. Can someone help me out here?
> >
> > Good question. Actually, basically nothing other than a word
> > "Extropy". Now, if we begin to unravel some of the history of how
> > transhumanism got stated you would learn that there were Upwinger
> > Transhumanists, Transhumanist Artists and other smaller groups of futurists
> > who felt aligned with the transhumanist futurism. But, really, the word
> > and ideas were first generated in the extropian community. The word
> > transhumanism came out of the extropian philosophy. Not the other way
> > around. However, FM-2030, wrote his view of what a transhuman is and I
> > think that his "ideology" was significantly transhumanist.
>
>I'm guessing you mean to say, "significantly extropian", as that would neatly
>wrap this up. If not, I don't understand what you do mean.
No, significantly transhumanist. FM was not an extropian, although he
thought well of the philosophy. He was a philosopher himself, and created
the Upwingers philosophy and contributed these ideas to form a
transhumanist ideology.
> > >By the way, I imagine that "a-political" could easily be used to describe
> > >libertarianism. :)
> >
> > Sure. I guess so. Frankly, I think political parties are old world.
>
>We agree on this, at least.
Great! Now let's talk ideas, progress and solutions and not get
bottlenecked in political dogma.
Natasha Vita-More
Founder, Transhumanist Arts
Art Director, Digital Design
http://www.natasha.cc http://www.extropic-art.com http://www.transhuman.org
"I'd rather be inebriated on a classic life than a 1996 classic Merlot."
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