From: Natasha V. More(f/k/a/Nancie Clark) (flexeon@primenet.com)
Date: Thu Jan 09 1997 - 19:05:56 MST
At 01:34 PM 1/9/97 PST, Michael Butler wrote:
> Damien said...
><snip>
>no correlation between complexity and species longevity. The argument seems
>solid. It has little bearing, of course, on purely cultural change, which
>is why the Spike will be the product of memes - the `Lamarckian' units of
>human minds and passions - rather than the raw contest of genes.
>
>Stuart Kauffman, who represents the alternative point of view, insists that
>self-organisation is a hallmark of life in our universe.
><snip>
>
>I say:
>And this conflation is close to the root of my problem with the
>working definition for Extropy recently floated by Romana here and on
>her Web site.
This brings up an interesting point: How many different people use their
own definitions for "extropy" and "transhuman"? Over the years, I have
noted a number of definitions other than the original definitions for both
these terms, and some of them have been quite good. How these terms and
their meanings pertain to us individually will certainly result in our *own*
understanding of same. For example, what "extropy" means to me, personally,
will be different than to Joe, or Sue. This is because we each have unique
sets of references and levels of growth and development. Same for
"transhuman" - each of us being at our own particular level of being transhuman.
Anyone can redefine a word whenever they like. However, if we redefine it
with a different meaning, it will cause confusion. This is important to pay
attention to. Otherwise, is will appear that we are redefining words
haphazardly.
Why redefine terms that have already been published and are widely known?
One reason is to improve the definition. Another reason could be to cause
confusion about the word. There could be a number of reasons. In the cases
that I have noticed, as mentioned above, it was because of lack of knowledge
about the term and its historical significance.
Any number of extropians' or transhumans' defintions of these terms are, in
part, a way to help them understand what they are trying to achieve by being
extropian or transhuman. A drawback is that it is not the original nor
official definition. By "official" I mean the definition by the creators of
the term and the definition that is set to appear in the dictionary.
extropy: noun, verb, adjective, a goal to achieve, a way of achieving a
goal; a way of living life, a life to live; a infinite expanding system of
living and non-living in the universe; a hairdo (can you imagine the new
"look" being ... "and, she attended the coctail party in the height of
fasion - the extropy hair and all ...")
transhuman n. a human in transition getting from here to there -:)
or
transhuman n. a being who droped the "sub" and is obtaining a "post."
Natasha Vita More
[f/k/a Nancie Clark]
http://www.primenet.com/~flexeon
Extropic Art Movement/Transhumanist Art Site
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