From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Tue Apr 16 2002 - 15:29:52 MDT
On Tuesday, April 16, 2002, at 02:41 pm, Brian D Williams wrote:
>
>> From: Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org>
>> Can we please let this topic die now? This has nothing whatsoever
>> to do with the focus of this list.
>
> I respectfully disagree.
As I see it, there are different levels of "on topic" discussions for
Extropians:
Primary Extropian topics: those that directly involve the Extropian
Principles and of interest to Transhumanists more than most humans.
This would include self-modification, future technology, space
exploration, etc.
Secondary Extropian topics: those that don't directly involve the
Extropian Principles and are of no interest to transhumanists except
that we need to address them to prevent them from interfering with our
movement. This would include Luddites, religion, legal restrictions,
public opinion, etc. We probably don't care about these issue except
that they won't go away and probably need to be monitored.
Tertiary Extropian topics: those that don't directly involve the
Extropian Principles and are of interest to all humans equally whether
they are transhumanists or not. This would include guns, politics,
self-defense, computer security, personal finance, etc. Extropians may
want to excel in these areas as a support function to the primary
extropian ideals, but they are of no more importance to transhumanists
than to any other humans.
Un-extropian topics: those that don't have anything to do with the
Extropian Principles and not of any special interest to transhumanists
or other humans, but we want to discuss anyway. Jokes, the latest
movies, updates about how hellish our boss is, meetings for beer, etc.
Not even related to extropian topics, but communications that humans
have with their friends anyway.
Anti-extropian topics: those that run counter to the Extropian
Principles and are directly avoided by most transhumanists. (There will
always be exceptions.) These topics would probably be off-limits in any
case, and would include those beliefs that are contradictory to
transhumanism. Anti-freedom, anti-science, and other negentropy forces
would be examples in this category.
While the Primary Extropian topics are definitely desired, it is the
Secondary and Tertiary topics which create most of the volume. These
topics are related to our interests, and are vital in many ways, but are
also seen as off-topic by many members. I think these cause the most
frustration because they are of no interest to large segments of the
group.
Perhaps we can split these off into other lists somehow. Comments?
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