From: Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Date: Thu Feb 05 1998 - 08:57:52 MST
I think it _is_ important to increase the appeal of the transhumanist
philosophy to women. We've been thinking a bit about how the WTA
could contribute that, so far without any very definite conclusions.
One good way, I think, would be to capitalize on the women we
already have (sorry for this way of phrasing it...). I mean, there
are female contributors to this list, for example, who could serve as
superb role models -- sucessful, strong, creative, confident. It
is much easier to assimilate a philosophy if there is a person you
admire who embodies it. And it would show that transhumanism is not
just abstract words but also something that can be _lived_.
It might also be true that there are some issues which are more
"male" and some that are more "female". Perhaps, on average, men are
comparatively more interested in molecular nanotechnology and women
in, say, new forms of interpersonal relations. If that is so, then
one could try to give more coverage to these "female" topics. (Or
prehaps, I am just prejudiced.)
Berrie Staring wrote:
> I think if Extropie & Transhumanism want to grow to a well known
> and respected philosophy (accepted as a realistic bunch of
> people by the world of science) we do have to work on Marketing.
> ......and that's were I come in ;-)
Very true, and that is often the hardest part. I was doing a debate
last Sunday on cloning. Afterward, many people came up and typically
they would say that they were impressed by the arguments presented by
our side. "Your presentation and your arguments were much better." --
Did you vote for us? --"OF COURSE not!".
> I think what Nick is doing is great and I will offer again all my
> help.
Thanks. I'm just a part of it, though. The initial response has been
extremely encouraging :-)
Let me also say, just to forestall any possible misunderstanding,
that though the WTA is a separate entity from the Extropy Institute,
it is not a rival or even competitor, but rather a symbiont and ally.
The goal is to increase the outreach to include extropians and also
those transhumanists who do not accept all features of extropian
transhumanism. One important goal is to bring transhumanism to
academic respectability
>What I would like to contribute on, is the translation of
> all these idea's, opinions and research to the majority.
...which is another main goal, perhaps the most important one.
_____________________________________________________
Nick Bostrom
London School of Economics
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb
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