From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Jul 07 1999 - 08:17:37 MDT
"den Otter" <neosapient@geocities.com> writes:
> > From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
> > Berrie Staring brought up a good point on TransVision: advertising
> > transhumanism doesn't seem to work, we don't convert people
> > easily. But people roughly sharing our values and ideas often get
> > interested when they run across information about us in magazines or
> > on the net, read more, and eventually seek us out.
>
> Yes, and when you increase your visibility (for example by creating
> a specialized >H media website, which looks so professional and
> innovative that it gets featured in magazines, web-watch shows etc.),
> interested parties will find you sooner, and in greater numbers.
If you try to get promotion by being innovative and professional, then
you will have to compete against every other innovative and
professional site - quite hard, since many in the later category can
throw money and expertise at the problem. But you can get featured
anyway - the Aleph site was featured in a Swedish computer magazine a
while back just because of its simplicity and usability, they said it
was an example of a good association site. I don't think bells and
whistles would have helped that site (we're updating it anyway now,
but will try to keep it simple and clean).
> > That might not be
> > the way to become a huge movement, but it might be a good way of
> > getting dedicated, interested members and build a base of credibility.
>
> Well, there's no shortage of talent, but for some reason we can't seem
> to effectively harness its power. Also, it would be interesting to
> determine what exactly we'd like to achieve with academic credibility
> (one of the WTA's goals, if I remember correctly) and/or popular support.
Another thing mentioned at TV99 was that what we are truly good at is
producing and spreading ideas and text. Few of us actually do
transhumanist research or run transhumanist companies (but let't
increase that percentage!), but we can all act by spreading the meme,
discussing it with people and otherwise expose it to society. This can
be done in different subcultures (the academic one, raves, whatever)
by different people. But the main thing is not to get everybody to
support it, it is to get a lot of people to accept it - that is much
easier than "converting" people, and doesn't hegemonize too much. If
transhumanism is viewed as a valid philosophical/cultural/political
view, then it is much harder to vote against it. If we instead try to
create a large number of pro-transhumanists without anchoring the
views in the rest of the population, then we are more likely to end up
with a polarization and "us vs. them".
> > BTW, any suggestions on how you would like to improve my web? I will
> > be doing major updating this summer (I even have hired a friend to
> > help me), so here is your chance to influence it.
>
> Actually your pages already look quite well; especially the small
> subject-related gifs at the top of sub-pages are a nice touch, as
> is the helix at the transhuman (index) page. Perhaps it would be
> an idea to add some more transhuman art and generally futuristic
> pictures to some introductory >H texts -- that's where they are
> most useful, IMO, bringing (new) visitors in the right mood, helping
> people to visualize and thus better understand transhuman concepts
> , from nanotech to Jupiter Brains. I'll give it some more thought,
> though.
Thanks. I'll see what I can do (and I am interested in submissions of
pictures too!). Recently I have fallen in love with a program called
Bryce, and I might do some transhumanist pictures using it - I already
have a Jupiter brain, but it looks too much like the Death Star :-)
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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