From: Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Date: Fri Jul 26 1996 - 13:44:46 MDT
At 08:48 AM 7/26/96 PDT, Robin Hanson wrote:
>Max writes:
>>it seems a good time to post the Extropian Principles. ... They
>>explain which attitudes those calling themselves "Extropians" hold in
>>common to various degrees, and so explain the range of topics
>>discussed on this list.
>
>I have long been curious to what extent people here actually do hold
>Max's attitudes in common, and whether there are other simpler
>predictors of who will call themselves "Extropians".
I'm very interested in finding out more about the kinds of people who think
of themselves as extropians or Extropians, and about what kinds of people
are most open to these ideas. It seems that, according to one fairly crude
measure, many are INTP or ENTP, but that doesn't really tell us much. Also,
I worry about looking for simple criteria because I'd rather find ways of
*broadening* the appeal of extropian ideas to a wider range of personality
types, rather than only seeking those who already think in similar ways.
(Obviously there are limits to this; certain personality traits strongly
militate against openness to extropian ideas and attitudes, such as deep
fear and loathing of change.)
I've posted
>before about my surveys of personality types and birth order
>predictors. My intuition is that what we mainly have in common is
>technical understanding and a genuine excitement and willingness to
>think carefully about the near and distant future.
Birth order seems to be a terribly blunt instrument. I will divide the
population into only a very few categories, and so seems incapable of
telling us anything useful in terms of discovering proto-extropians, even if
it turns out that we are all third-born or whatever. And I seriously doubt
there is much of a pattern there anyway. Nor do I think technical
understanding will distinguish proto-extropians from others well, though it
will often be a factor that contributes to extropian sympathies.
>It would be possible to construct a survey of Extropians and some
>control sample of non-Extropians, with questions about agree/disagree
>with Max's attitudes, about personality type, and about the other
>predictors I mentioned, and then do some statistics to see which of
>these are the best predictors.
Are you offering?!
Upward and Outward!
Max
Max More, Ph.D. maxmore@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President Extropy Institute (ExI)
Editor Extropy
310-398-0375
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore/extropy.htm
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:42 MST