poly: META: List criticism

On Jan 6, 4:59pm, Tim May wrote:

> Well, I think the whole idea of calling the members of this list
> "polymaths" is a stretch.
> >From what I can see, we're just the Usual Bunch of Science Folks.

I took the name from Perry's old quote about what he'd meant the extropians
list to be; it appealed to me since I'd like to earn the title myself
someday. Robin picked it as the best of a very short list of options (naming
is not one of my talents). My initial idea was "neo-enlightenment", as
I've been thinking the list of an attempt at an electronic _salon_, but
it's a hideous name for a list. And I'm not changing at this stage.

> I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the invite list seems
> drastically overweighted in favor of "Extropians" and ex-Extropians. Is it

The list is (was?) the highest source of general discussion I'm familiar
with, unless I count the meanderings on rec.arts.sf.science/written,
which newsgroups I have tought of trawling. I must admit that I've
tried not to let multiple mailing lists interfere with my job and
reading too much.

-xx- GCU Librarian Bound in Pale Leather X-)

Although its rudimentary ego could neither receive nor transmit thought,
it knew that it was a fontema, that it must roll and roll and roll,
endlessly, that by virtue of determined rolling its species would
continue and would increase. -- _First Lensmen_
Received on Wed Jan 7 05:25:57 1998