From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Fri Aug 09 2002 - 09:24:04 MDT
From: estropico estropico@virgilio.it
>I have long thought that the "movement" needs a *print* magazine, both as a
focus and as an outreach tool. Me and a few of others that have met through
ExtroBritannia (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extrobritannia) in London are
now seriously thinking of going ahead with a project in this direction.<
Would I buy a transhumanist magazine? Sure would. And, I have! Extropy
magazine was in print for some years and it's part of my "best reading"
collection.
>(cut)The idea is to put together the best articles published by a wide
range of
websites, organisations and individuals...<
We are in the process of conceptualizing an anthology of material by
individuals who are members or some of the above organizations.
>I doubt that such a magazine could succeed if owned/run by any single
transhumanist group, because it could be perceived as partisan by
transhumanists and as cultish by the general public and because it could
rapidly run out of quality material to publish.<
I don't think this is necessarily true. Although there tends to be a lack
of community planning and cooperation, Alcor and ExI have set a fine
precedent of how organizations can combine efforts over the many years.
Rather than worrying what the public thinks, a more business-like model
would be to consider what our aims are and to proceed ahead, to question
our goals, and to continuously reevaluate our strategy.
>The idea rests on three assumptions:
1.There is a market out there for such a magazine (I realise that an
initial
circulation of a very few hundreds would be a success)
Yes there is. Wired does a pretty good job of getting information out.
It's not "transhumanist," but has certainly brought many of our memes to
the public. Many of the magazines I have been interviewed by have been
very responsible in reporting about transhumanity. However, I think it
might be more advantageous right now to work with the publications that are
already in established. The more our writings are published - which
includes Kurzweil, More, Minsky, etc.; and our ideas are written about -
which includes myself, etc., the more we will appear as individuals who
represent various angles of a particular philosophical view. This in
itself would bring about and secure financing for a transhumanist magazine
which not only covers transhumanist ideas, but also questions them. If we
do not question our own ideas, we would appear to be some sort of click.
>What I have in mind is a quarterly, not-for-profit publication, available
internationally, sold mostly on the web, but also available at some physical
location (specialist bookshops and wherever it's possible to have it
commercially distributed, but this might be something to consider if and
when
the mag grows in popularity).<
Sounds like Extropy magazine. -:)
Any ideas, suggestions, criticisms?
Good suggestion, Fabio. We need a few hundred thousand dollars to get it
started.
Best,
Natasha
"The best defense is a proactive offense."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:58 MST