From: Natasha Vita-More (natasha@natasha.cc)
Date: Thu Jul 08 1999 - 09:34:16 MDT
At 02:04 AM 7/8/99 EDT, Mac Tonnies wrote:
>Sagan's "Cosmos" turned me on to popular science writing more than any other
>single book; now I read a great deal of nonfiction on science/culture. One
>of the best I've read recently is Mark Dery's "Escape Velocity." Alex
>Heard's "Apocalypse Pretty Soon" follows a similar theme (and it's
>hilarious), though it equates cryonics and transhumanism as some form of
>misguided millennial hysteria. At least that's what I got out of Heard's
>commentary; I'm willing to forgive him, as his book is quite blatantly a
>personal take on things, and he makes no real attempt to speak on behalf of
>"reason" for all of us.
Carl Sagan has been an enormous influence on my thinking. _The Demon
Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark_ is a book I refer to often.
Most of my reading early on had been biographies and autobiographies and
Herman Hesse, Anais Nin, Gertrude Stein, Ayn Rand, Simon de Bouvoire, Oscar
Wilde, Georgia O'Keefe, etc. This gave me a foundation for life and
values. Reading John Naisbitt, Alvin Toffler and FM-2030 gave me insight
into the future. Knowing Timothy Leary and reading Wilson and Grujieff
gave me a spin. That spin is quite integral to my thinking.
It wasn't until my 40s that I really took the time to read science fiction
and fortunately I had a mentor of Max More to make suggestions to me.
Interestingly enough, much of the ideas in the SF books I had already been
aware of, and many of the ideas had already sprouted in my art. In fact,
my art back in the 70s (video/film performances a paintings) were extremely
transhumanist - dealing with evolution and the blurring of the lines of
gender, space, human-machine blending.
Regarding Alex's book, speak to him directly about it. I personally didn't
feel slighted in it, although I would have preferred a *different*
approach. I would have preferred that he didn't link me only to cryonics
and Timothy Leary as a hype, but focused on my art and extropians more deeply.
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More: http://www.natasha.cc
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