From: David Lubkin (lubkin@unreasonable.com)
Date: Tue Aug 10 1999 - 22:59:13 MDT
On 8/10/99, at 7:03 PM, Spike Jones wrote:
>- that altho nearly every person there could easily qualify for Mensa,
> I suspect not one single extropian there is an active Mensan (right?)
I put off having anything to do with Mensa for years because the threshold was
too low, and I didn't see what the point was. A few months ago I went to a
Mensa convention (or "regional gathering", as they call it) to finally check it out.
Observations:
The crowd is very similar in interests and appearance to science fiction
fandom or the Libertarian Party. Lots of facial hair and pot bellies. A strong
gaming streak. A significant minority who want to impress you with how smart
they are. Fewer computer people than fandom or the LP. Fairly welcoming to
newcomers. I suspect that a majority vote Democrat. No smarter than the
typical person I meet at software companies but more diverse interests, and
more open to talking about something they'd never considered before. (Over
breakfast we discussed why humans have less body hair than other primates
and whether QE II would skip over Prince Charles. A lively conversation,
populated by people with more opinions than facts. (Just like extropians...? :-) )
All in all, I like extropians a lot better than Mensans. But it is a way to meet
fairly intelligent and interesting people you wouldn't otherwise run into. And
I appreciate that, should I ever want to go again, there's something Mensan
to do in my vicinity almost every night.
-- David Lubkin.
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