From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sat Feb 28 1998 - 15:18:01 MST
Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net> writes:
> Extropians List subscribers could be construed by mainstreamers to:
> a) have social dysfunctions indicated by the fact they spend so much time
> discussing strange topics on an internet mail list, therefore have
> difficulty interacting with people in the 'real' world.
> b) have a difficulty distinguishing their internet life from their real
> lives (if they have real lives), and in fantasizing about htings like mind
> uploading and a mythical transhuman singularity, nanotechnology and jupiter
> brains, have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality.
> c) in their wishes to upload their minds (which seems like it would be a
> destructive process), support the right to suicide, promote the use of guns
> for self defense, and have themselves frozen, they demonstrate a lack of
> concern for their own safety and well being, and are likely to hurt
> themselves.
>
> So an active and dedicated extropian could be construed to be quite ill.
Good try. And I have no doubt that some people would agree with you (I
have a friend (!) who distrusts *anything* I say since I'm obviously
"mad" because I discuss uploading and similar topics). But if you ask
any serious psychologist och clinical psychiatrist, they will at most
agree with a and b, and that is just a fairly benign personality
disorder (compared to what they usually deal with, it is). Of course,
if you go to a psychoterapist, he will immediately tell you that you
are ill and in need of help, but they say that to everybody (OK, I'm
not very fond of psychotherapy :-).
> Thats my point. The members of this list are entirely TOO rational and
> logical, as compared to the general population. That we can rationally
> discuss such theoretical subjects as a transhuman singularity without (too
> frequently) going off on almost theological trysts indicates that the
> members of this list are not normal.
Quite. And who wants to be normal? Normal people are so boring! The
trick is to avoid being normal while retaining sanity.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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