From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat Jun 08 2002 - 20:31:04 MDT
At 12:38 PM 6/8/02 -0400, Mark Walker wrote:
>Max More has
>kindly agreed to allow comments on the papers
>to be posted to the Extropian list.
>3. "Answering the Fermi Paradox: Exploring the Mechanisms of Universal
>Transcension" (http://www.transhumanist.com/Smart-Fermi.htm
>by John Smart
I have made the following minor comment previously to John in private, but
I think it might be worth testing the sentiment of the room:
He introduces a technical term, MEST, to denote one of his key concepts:
Matter/Energy/Space/Time. I think this is a REALLY, REALLY bad move.
Here's what I said then and still feel strongly to be the case:
< The term MEST might well be your own independent coinage, but be advised
that it's one of the oldest buzzwords from Hubbard/Scientology, whose
acronym means just what yours does. The hair on my arms stands on end when
I see anything that smacks of such a source. ...If this is just a
coincidence, get rid of the term *right now*. To me it has the same effect
as informing people that you're working for the cause of, oh, the Ancient
Ascended Masters of Atlantis.... >
Or introducing `aura' or `magic crystal' or `sun sign', say, into the
discussion. Totally unnecessary. I suggested to John that
< instead of MEST, you might consider using STEM, which is more gravid with
meaning anyway....>
This is a very trivial point to raise about such a long and complex paper,
but I'd hate to see all that work scuttled by hasty skeptical readers who
take it to be another inane fantasy from the postmortem typewriter of
Elron. (John Smart is *not*, of course, a Scientologist.)
Damien Broderick
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