From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Tue May 28 2002 - 16:28:28 MDT
Curt Adams writes:
> So not everything the government's done in the past 10, 20, or whatever
> years is good. Big surprise. My air is cleaner, life expectancy longer,
> job more interesting, computer faster, I have the WWW, there's more
> tolerance of alternative lifestyles, significant moves to drug legalization,
> I no longer fear being blown to kingdom come, even socialists accept the
> market, etc. There's no obvious metric of whether 1992 or 2002 is better,
> but the metric of "what Curt wants to live in" enthusiastically supports
> 2002.
That's a good reminder of something we tend to overlook. It is often
easier to focus on what is wrong than on what is right. Plus there is
a political incentive to emphasize bad things in order to get people
riled up and motivated.
But as Extropians we are supposed to be (dynamically) optimistic.
That means avoiding the trap of believing we are caught in a downward
spiral. Sure, some things are going wrong but many things are going
right as well. Who would have predicted five years ago that such
Extropian topics as brain enhancement and genetic engineering of humans
would be hot discussion items in the New York Times and The Economist?
My mind is still reeling that the staid Times worriedly saw us heading
towards a world whose streets were crowded with superhuman beings.
Curt has an excellent point about the superiority of 2002 over 1992,
and the comparison gets even stronger as you go back in the decades.
And the amazing part, which most people still don't get, is that it
will probably continue to be true in the future. 2012 will be that much
better than 2002, and 2022 even better still.
We have every reason to be optimistic. Our ideas are incredibly strong,
and despite the inevitable backlash, we are in favor of giving people
what they want: strength, beauty, intelligence, health, and long life.
That, my friends, is an unbeatable package.
Hal
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