From: Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Dec 18 1996 - 19:44:27 MST
You know, don't take this the wrong way, but this "extropy" business
seems likely to degenerate into a cultish, self-righteous restatement of
goals that should be acheived by sober, dry, scientific thought.
How about if we just say that Extropy is "the belief that ridiculously
high technology is a good thing" instead of listing two hundred positive
attributes that have nothing whatsoever to do with Extropy?
> The current definition is" "Extropy -- the extent of a person's or a
> culture's intelligence, information, vitality, diversity, opportunity, and
> [personal] growth." "Personal" might be removed since it fits with person
> but not very well with culture.
Many intelligent people are not Extropians. Many well-informed people
are not Extropians. My vitality is as close to zero as a human can get
without falling over. There's only one of me. Many Extropians are
leading low-opportunity lives and the majority of high-opportunity
people are not Extropians, a double dissociation. Most people who are
exhibiting personal growth are going through life-defining experiences
that have nothing to do with a belief in high technology.
Certainly your list might make a fine "To-Do" list of things that
Extropians should do and might be good at, but as a *definition* I'd
have to say that it's a smugly self-righteous failure.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.
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