From: Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Date: Thu Aug 20 1998 - 18:33:11 MDT
Boog aka Colin wrote:
> Nicholas Bostrom wrote>
>
> : I have evidence indicating that the rumor about the censored
> : post was started by someone who is explicitly out there to harm the
> : ExI. I can't disclose this evidence since it was confided to me in a
> : private email. But let's all simply ignore this rumor.>
> [snip] Either retract that bull or provide us all with your
> evidence.
I really don't want to get involved in this. But I also don't want to
unfairly injure anybody's honour. I presume you were the first one to
post about the "missing posts"? Let me then make a clarification:
Luckily, the person I was refering to has written back to me after I
made it clear to him that I would not guarantee the privacy of his
communications if he continued to write to me. So I can now put my
cards on the table.
The situation is simply this. I got a messege from Jonathan Grimes,
wherein he was jubilant about how easy a time he had had tricking
everybody into believing in the censorship rumor. At this stage I
thought I should write the four lines quoted above, since I saw that
Max and other ExI members were being unfairly accused of censorship,
and their webmaster was spending a lot of time trying to restore the
missing part of the archive. It would have been wrong of me not to
speak up.
It now appears [see quoted letter below] that Jonathan did perhaps
not literally "trick" anybody, but perhaps he only encouraged Boog to
post about the "censorship". And Boog may have acted in good faith,
noticing that he couldn't retrieve Erik's messeges, and wrongly
concluded that the ExI had censored them.
This nonsense has wasted enough time. Let's move on to something more
fruitful.
================================
Date sent: Thu, 20 Aug 98 03:49:34 UT
From: "Jonathan Grimes" <JonathanGrimes@classic.msn.com>
To: bostrom@ndirect.co.uk Subject: RE: Legal
Prosecution
Hello,
[Jonathan quoting himself:]
> Not "Extropy !" the cult with a golden reputation. I can't believe
> how easy it was to trick everyone into saying such incriminating
> things.
I knew you would misinterpret that. Has Mitch Porter contacted
you ? Do you want to know what happened between me and
Mitch ? Well everything was going great until I started saying
that I suspect Extropy is a cult. It is a cult you do realize
that don't you ? Well after that he started acting funny. Well
Mitch I have been nothing but a great friend to you and I told
you lots of fascinating things. I hope you enjoyed stabbing
me in the back on that list. You really find out who your
friends are in these situations. You do remember all about
what happened to Erik. Erik believed it was a cult too and well
they just couldn't handle it or so I am told.
The word "trick" is merely a figure of speech.
At no point did I "trick" anyone into saying anything that
they DID NOT ALREADY THINK. I can not make people
say things they do not already think. It is like an
operation where you place a microphone on someone and
you get them to reveal the
TRUTH !
I know the truth is a hard concept for Extropy to understand.
I think the transhumanist community can not handle the truth
about Extropy.
I am now going to tell everyone what Max doesn't want you
to know. He fears me like no one else on that list. He is
scared to death of engaging me for fear of what I might
reveal. It will be revealed.
> I'm appalled to hear this. Please stop this dishonest campaign
> against the ExI immediately. Why do you want to destroy things for
> other people?
This is good advice. I will do it ! I will use an all honest campaign.
I don't want to destroy things for other people. You do not know what
I know about that organization but I know for a fact because of
LOGIC
that Max has hidden something in the Principal's list and I am
about to tell everyone. When I first discovered it I couldn't
believe it was true. Do you want me to tell you want it is outright ?
> Please be warned that I do not guarantee the privacy of whatever you
> write to me from now on.
Mitch ?
Best Wishes
Jonathan Grimes
_____________________________________________________
Nick Bostrom
Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
London School of Economics
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk
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