From extropians-request@extropy.org Tue Sep 28 18:45:17 1993 Return-Path: Received: from usc.edu by chaph.usc.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1+ucs-3.0) id AA24122; Tue, 28 Sep 93 18:45:15 PDT Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: from ude.tim.ia.ung.gnu.ai.mit.ed (ude.tim.ia.ung.gnu.ai.mit.edu) by usc.edu (4.1/SMI-3.0DEV3-USC+3.1) id AA01241; Tue, 28 Sep 93 18:45:07 PDT Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Received: by ude.tim.ia.ung.gnu.ai.mit.edu id AA16082; Tue, 28 Sep 93 21:39:58 EDT Received: from news.panix.com by ude.tim.ia.ung.gnu.ai.mit.edu via TCP with SMTP id AA16077; Tue, 28 Sep 93 21:39:42 EDT Received: by news.panix.com id AA09635 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for exi-maillist@ung.gnu.ai.mit.edu); Tue, 28 Sep 1993 21:39:49 -0400 Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 21:39:49 -0400 Message-Id: <199309290139.AA09635@news.panix.com> To: Extropians@extropy.org From: Extropians@extropy.org Subject: Extropians Digest X-Extropian-Date: September 29, 373 P.N.O. [01:39:37 UTC] Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org Errors-To: Extropians-Request@gnu.ai.mit.edu Status: RO Extropians Digest Wed, 29 Sep 93 Volume 93 : Issue 271 Today's Topics: BASICS: Death [1 msgs] Books on Anarcho-Capitalism [1 msgs] DisappointNet and the Pos [1 msgs] DisappointNet and the PostModern world order [1 msgs] Extropaganza roster [1 msgs] Extropian Trademarks [1 msgs] FWD: Nanomagnets & Microengines [1 msgs] HEx: don't hold your breath [2 msgs] HUMOR: How Science Really Works [1 msgs] HUMOR: Mission: Implausible [2 msgs] META: List archives. [2 msgs] PSYCH: Self love and love of others [1 msgs] Princeton discussion group forming [1 msgs] Recovery [1 msgs] Unconditional self-love [1 msgs] philosophitis [2 msgs] railgun [1 msgs] Administrivia: No admin msg. Approximate Size: 52363 bytes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 10:30:29 EDT From: eli@suneast.east.sun.com (Elias Israel - SunSelect Engineering) Subject: BASICS: Death (Yes, the man is following up is own post. He obviously does need some kind of neural replacement...) Maybe the idea that's giving me trouble is the internal appearance of continuity of consciousness. Perhaps the identification of me-here-now, with the memories that I carry is just an illusion of continuity, with no more permanence than a cloud. The matter that makes up a cloud is constantly moving and changing, yet we still identify the cloud as a singular, unique object with substance and continuity. Maybe consciousness is like the cloud, giving the illusion of permanence. Unfortunately, this conclusion doesn't make me any more sanguine about changing bodies. If consciousness isn't really a thing at all, if trying to see it that way is a misidentification, then how can you move it to another vessel? Elias Israel eli@east.sun.com HEx: E ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 09:05:21 -0700 From: freeman@maspar.com (Jay R. Freeman) Subject: Recovery Kennita comments: > [...] My intuition is that an Extropian, in addition to being > at least mostly in alignment with the Five Principles, loves himself > or herself unconditionally at least, also extending that gift to more > or fewer others as his or her temperament and values dictate. (The First Extropian Squirrel reappears, briefly:) FES: A very nice summing up of a controversial position on a matter of substance. It seems to me that the notion of unconditional love, and its extension, is rather broadly encountered in human philosophies and (canonically non-absolute) moralities. With the word "others" allowed to include non-human species (which and how much subject to discussion), this notion is probably at the heart of most animal-rights positions, including mine. I have also been known to apply it to humans. -- Jay Freeman, First Extropian Squirrel ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, 28 September 1993 07:45:41 PST8 From: "James A. Donald" Subject: philosophitis In <17763@price.demon.co.uk>, price@price.demon.co.uk (Michael Clive Price) wrote: > > James Donald astounds us with his "insight": > > > Clearly the operations required to measure the angular > > momentum of an electron are qualitatively different to the > > operations required to measure the angular momentum of a > > merry go round. > > Not "clearly" at all. Place a charge on the merry-go round and fire > through an inhomogeneous magnetic field and it would be deflected like > the electrons in the stern-gerlach experiment. No wonder Price thinks that everything is operationally defined - he does not know your basic physics. A little lesson in basic physics. As most of the people on the list are aware, the Stern-Gerlach experiment measures magnetic moment, not angular momentum. (Strictly speaking it measures the ratio of magnetic moment to electron kinetic energy, but we agree that electron kinetic energy is well defined operationally.) An "operational definition" of electron angular momentum has to generate an answer in torque-seconds, or kg meter squared seconds. Otherwise it is not an operational definition of angular momentum. It is an operational definition of magnetic moment. Equivalently, you could use an operational definition of the electron gyromagnetic moment (a scalar constant ) and also an operational definition of magnetic moment (the Stern-Gerlach experiment). The two operational definitions together would be equivalent to an operational definition of angular momentum. However the same problem arises. The "operational definition" of the gyromagnetic moment of an electron is qualitatively different from the operational definition of the gyromagnetic moment of the merry go round, thus we have one concept with two incompatible "operational definitions" Thus methods of measurement are methods of measurement. They are not definitions in general, though they may well be definitions in particular cases (such as linear momentum) Thus operationalism is logically incoherent. Operationalism *defines* concepts by their method of measurement. This works in many cases, and is very useful when it works. It fails in other cases, such as this one. Two objects can have similar magnetic moments, and vastly different angular momenta, and they can have similar angular momenta, and vastly different magnetic moments. In order to operationally define things, you need to understand the basic concepts. This is a typical example of how using operational definitions *in place* of concepts leads you into nonsense and confused thinking. Using operational definitions is good. Using them *in place* of concepts - the Webster dictionary definition of operationalism - leads to muddied and confused thinking, of which Price's ramblings are an excellent example. Operationalism has lead Price to confuse magnetic moment and angular momentum, as if gyromagnetic moment was granted from the skies by divine revelation. > > the electron *does* have a well defined angular momentum. > > Same comment here. The angular momentum of an electron may be well- > defined or not, according to the setup. I could go on here, but it is > pointless. James Donald does not understand quantum mechanics and wave- > particle duality. The magnitude, though not the direction of electron angular momentum is always well defined, and always the same. The magnitude is always the same. And it is the same kind of thing, and in the same units, as the merry go round angular momentum. Yet the operational definitions are completely different. The point is, that an "operational definition" of angular momentum does not reveal this truth, nor does it tell us what the magnitude is. > > If scientific concepts are defined by operations, instead > > of the other way around, we could not know that the > > angular momentum of an electron is angular momentum - and > > we *do* know that it is angular momentum. > > A truly astounding sentence. Any E' experts care to analyse? I have > previously expressed my scepticism of the necessity of using E', but > some people are clearly badly in need of it. Nick, my apologies :-) > PS There is a difference between conventional orbital angular momentum > and spin or 'intrinsic' angular momentum. I was beginning to think that you were not aware of this, that you thought that an electron has angular momentum the same way that a top does. Are you now claiming that because the intrinsic angular momentum of an electron is operationally different from the orbital angular momentum they really are different things? It would seem that you are claiming this. Magnificent evidence for the power of operational definitions. Operational definitions clarify things in some areas. In other areas, such as this one, they bamboozle people. Operationalism is a useful tool in many areas, but to claim it as a definition of language and reality is utter nonsense. I cannot see why Price is always flaming me. I am a moderate realist. He is a moderate realist with the delusion that operationalism is compatible with moderate realism. I claim that we can deduce rights from the nature of man, he claims we can deduce rights by observing conduct, but how does one know the nature of man except by observing conduct, and how does one understand conduct except by knowing the nature of man? --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves and our James A. Donald | property, because of the kind of animals that we | are. True law derives from this right, not from jamesdon@infoserv.com | the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 09:36:49 -0700 From: cappello@cs.ucsb.edu (Peter Cappello) Subject: Unconditional self-love >At this point, my task is to avoid bogging myself down with >ponderings about what love is, and what unconditional self-love >would look like. Dr. Peter Breggin gives a beautiful answer in his book The Psychology of Freedom: Liberty and Love As a Way of Life. Joan Kennedy Taylor says this about the book: "This is a lovely book. It speaks to a yearning for self-determination and individual happiness that is the mainspring of today's three great grassroots movements---libertarianism, feminism and the human potential movement." (Her assessment was given in either 1979 or 1980.) The publisher is Prometheus Books, 1203 Kensington Av, Buffalo, NY 14215. One distributor is Lake House Books, POB 5919, Washington, DC 20014. (I would try Laissez Faire Books.) -Pete ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 10:43:36 MDT From: Mark_Muhlestein@Novell.COM (Mark Muhlestein) Subject: Extropaganza roster Other attendees: Mark Muhlestein (Mark_Muhlestein@novell.com) Ed Lane (Ed_Lane@novell.com) Fred and Linda Chamberlain I don't think I've ever had a more stimulating or enjoyable time. Thanks again to all, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of you again when I attend the Nanotech conference in October. Mark_Muhlestein@novell.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 10:52:22 -0600 From: morgan@arc.ab.ca (Sean Morgan) Subject: FWD: Nanomagnets & Microengines [Forward message follows. Sean.] ------------- Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 12:26:23 -0400 From: pfs2@aip.org Subject: update.145_distr PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE A digest of physics news items prepared by Phillip F. Schewe, AIP Public Information Number 145 September 28, 1993 SUPERCONDUCTIVITY HAS BEEN OBSERVED ABOVE 150 K for a mercury-barium-calcium-copper oxide material squeezed to a pressure of 150 kbar, which is about 150,000 times the pressure of the atmosphere. The previous record of 133 K was observed in a similar mercury-bearing material earlier this year. The new material, known as Hg-1223, was made by C.W. Paul Chu and colleagues at the University of Houston. Why pressure should increase the superconducting transition temperature is not completely understood, but based on previous experiments Chu believes that making the appropriate chemical substitutions in the material might duplicate these high temperatures at normal pressure. (C.W. Chu et al., Nature, 23 September 1993.) MICROLENSING EVENTS HINT AT THE EXISTENCE OF DARK MATTER. Just as the presence of galaxies along the line of sight to a distant quasar will distort the image of the quasar via a gravitational lensing effect (making the quasar appear as two or more spots or as an arc), so the image of a nearby object such as a star might be distorted by the gravitational influence of unseen dark matter lying between us and the star. This hypothesis has been put to the test by two survey projects which scan millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearby satellite galaxy. These stars are close enough to be seen clearly but far enough away so that a sufficient amount of dark matter---which may reside in the halo around the Milky Way---would be present to distort the stars' images. At a recent meeting in Italy, Charles Alcock of Livermore spoke on behalf of a US/Australian team. He announced one such "microlensing" event, in which a star's apparent brightness changed considerably over a short time, presumably by the interposing presence of dark matter in the form of massive compact halo objects, or MACHOs. Michel Spiro of Saclay in France also reported that his group had observed two microlensing candidate events. Some astronomers at the meeting believed that it was too early to attribute the star-image distortions to dark matter. (New York Times, 21 Sept. 1993) NANOMAGNETS EXHIBIT BISTABILITY. A Florence-Rio de Janiero-Grenoble team of scientists have chemically prepared 12- ion clusters of manganese and observed that at temperatures of 4 K the clusters retain their magnetization for some time and exhibit pronounced hysteresis; that is, for a given value of an external magnetic field, the clusters can reside in one of two magnetic states. This feature, the scientists believe, could lead to information storage at the molecular level if ever a way can be found to address individual clusters. (R. Sessoli et al., Nature, 9 Sept. 1993.) MICROSCOPIC STEAM ENGINES can deliver up to 100 times the power of comparably sized electrostatic micromotors. Sandia physicist Jeffry Sniegowski has built a tiny motor only 6 microns by 2 microns; sitting on a wafer, the device consists of a micropiston moving through a silicon bore. Power comes from a water bubble made to expand and contract by heating. Potential applications of the motor may occur in areas where high-precision alignment or positioning are important, such as micro-surgery or micro- manufacturing. (Science News, 25 Sept. 1993.) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 13:22:32 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Sulkowski Subject: Books on Anarcho-Capitalism From: "Perry E. Metzger" > >dave.edmondson@glib.org says: >> >> Would someone like to recommend a good book that explains how an >> anarcho-capitalist society would work? Thanks. > >I recommend "The Machinery of Freedom" by David Friedman as an >introduction, with "The Enterprise of Law: Justice without the State" >by Bruce Benson as a deeper treatment of the question of private law >enforcement. I second Perry's recommendations. These are the best books on the subject period, IMEO. * . ====\\. ~ //==== || \\ ~ . *// || || \\ * // || || \\.~// || || \\// || || Mark \/enture || ==================== ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 13:38:07 EDT From: david@WAL6000A.UDC.UPENN.EDU (R. David Murray) Subject: HEx: don't hold your breath It seems to me that it is be possible that HEX will turn into a meaningful reputation market, but that in doing so the 'reputation' being measured would turn out not to be anything related to quality of posts (except indirectly) but instead a broad based 'business' reputation. We have seen small, sometimes abortive, transactions take place denominated in thorns. The sale or attempted sale of keybording services. Thorn bets. Bids to buy certain products. Suppose this trend continues. Rowan is selling thorns for dollars. If services are offered denominated in thorns, someone(s) will start buying thorns for dollars. If thorns come to have value, the HEX market could become a real stock market. Sell shares in a new security for thorns, use the thorns to buy services so you can offer a new service to earn more thorns, pay dividends . . . the whole ball of wax. When HEX started I didn't think the thorn could spontaneously acquire value. I'm not so sure now. Thorns offer a distinct advantage over dollars here on the net: they are electronic and electronically tradable. This margin of efficiency may be enough to allow them to acquire value, with a little (spontaneous) help. So, to help the ball slowly gather momentum, I'm taking bids, in thorns, for one slightly beat up copy of Neil Smith's "Crystal Empire". Send bids to david@udcemail.udc.upenn.edu with 'BID' somewhere in the subject line. I'll pay the (FRN denominated) postage. All bidders (whose return addresses work for me) will be informed at least daily of the current high bid. The auction will run until no new bids come in for two days, or until next Tuesday, whichever is later. (Assuming, of course, I get *any* bids). And, if you think I might be the first to offer dividends (someday), buy BITD (BitDance Enterprises) on HEX. -- david david@udcemail.udc.upenn.edu BitDance Enterprises PS: Rowan, I think you'd better get busy on those encryption modules , and start thinking about how and what to charge for exchange services. PPS: No, I'm *not* holding my breath, but I *am* being dynamically optimistic! -- david david@udcemail.udc.upenn.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 13:44:26 EDT From: david@WAL6000A.UDC.UPENN.EDU (R. David Murray) Subject: Extropian Trademarks We don't have a PPL with which I can register trademarks (do we?). I'd like to sort of 'lay claim' to 'BitDance Enterprises', 'BitDancer', and 'Dancing Bits Consulting'. Any objections? And, yes, I'm going to see if I can get them trademarked using the current statist methods, as well, though I've only just begun the process of learning how to do that. Anyone know if anyone has already taken any of them? -- david david@udcemail.udc.upenn.edu (BitDance Enterprises) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 19:22:30 +0100 (BST) From: Charlie Stross Subject: DisappointNet and the PostModern world order > From scol.london.sco.com!sco.sco.com!ude.tim.ia.ung.gnu.ai.mit.edu!extropy.org!extropians-request Tue Sep 28 03:56:41 1993 > To: Extropians@extropy.org > Message-Id: <9309280243.AA09155@snark.lehman.com> > X-Original-To: extropians@extropy.org > Subject: DisappointNet and the PostModern world order > X-Reposting-Policy: redistribute only with permission > Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 22:43:40 -0400 > From: "Perry E. Metzger" > X-Extropian-Date: Remailed on September 28, 373 P.N.O. [02:44:13 UTC] > X-Message-Number: #93-9-1574 > Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org > > Charlie Stross says: > > > Why should I use a 2400 baud modem when I can now get my hands on > > > ISDN? Soon, ISDN will be obsolete, since some carriers are now talking > > > about offering 10Mbit service to ordinary subscribers over a > > > metropolitan network set up over their existing fiber systems. > > > > Well yeah, but I think you're missing a critical point. I'm talking > > about the internet's impact on the general public, and Joe Schmoe <> > > Perry Metzger. It is estimated that something like 70% of the > > _installed_ base of UNIX boxes are still communicating by UUCP at > > 1200 baud. > > Estimated by whom? As of when? I'm quite skeptical of the figure. > Upgrading to 2400 baud, which would halve the phone bills of such > users, would cost them only about $60. The cost of a V.32bis modem is > sufficently low that I have difficulty believing people who own $2000 > unix boxes won't buy them, and thats the low end of Unix boxes. Estimated by the guys in SCO Technical Support who get to fight the fires when someone realizes that their 6 Mhz 286 running Xenix won't cut the cake any more. Remember, 60-70% of all the UNIX licenses ever sold are for non-networked PC's running Xenix. A lot of these boxes run for years in a back room at a mom'n'pop business, gathering dust and chewing over the accounts. We don't hear much from them on the net because most of them are used by bean-counters to run accounting packages for small businesses. And bean counters, once they've got a system that works, are loath to upgrade. Even for a $100 modem. (Remember: the figure I quoted was based on actual experience, not a pie-in-the-sky guesstimate.) It's a humbling thought, but once in a while it's worth realizing that a lot of people don't understand that their computer isn't merely a dedicated Word Perfect 4.2 engine, and there's a vast community of technological illiterates out there. (Apart from this: no comment. I agree completely with you [Perry] about what's possible, and largely about what's likely in hardware terms. The only thing to bear in mind is a note of caution; the consumers tend to get what the consumers want, and most of them are functionally illiterate in this field. Hence the Nintendo generation ...) Charlie Stross is charless@scol.sco.com, charlie@antipope.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 15:15:54 EDT From: Brian.Hawthorne@east.sun.com (Brian Holt Hawthorne - SunSelect Engineering) Subject: HEx: don't hold your breath > When HEX started I didn't think the thorn could spontaneously acquire > value. I'm not so sure now. Thorns offer a distinct advantage over > dollars here on the net: they are electronic and electronically > tradable. This margin of efficiency may be enough to allow them to > acquire value, with a little (spontaneous) help. > PS: Rowan, I think you'd better get busy on those encryption modules > , and start thinking about how and what to charge for exchange > services. > Please note that the Hawthorne Exchange has just contracted with someone to add PGP signature verification to the Exchange software. It will be until at least the end of October before this is integrated, but I thought it would be useful for people to know what was in the works. If anyone is interested in helping with the development of the Dutch Auction module for the Exchange, please contact me directly. All HEx consulting contracts are payed in Thornes, of course. Currently, there are no transaction fees on HEx. If the Exchange really takes off (i.e., my workstation becomes unusable), I may institute some sort of per-transaction fee. Rowan R on HEx ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 14:30:04 CDT From: eder@hsvaic.boeing.com (Dani Eder) Subject: railgun Yes, the rails in a railgun generally need to be quite strong. If you have a railgun with the same cross section as a pair of railroad tracks, you would build it as a steel box beam about 4 inches sqaure (square) with thick walls to support the loads, with two flat copper rails lining two of the sides of the box. You need to electrically insulate the copper rails from the steel to prevent a short, and thus you end up with a bore a couple of inches across to fire projectiles with. Dani Eder ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 12:47:48 -0700 From: cappello@cs.ucsb.edu (Peter Cappello) Subject: Princeton discussion group forming I am forwarding the message below in case any extropians in the area might want to participate. -Pete Newsgroups: princeton.general From: bdcaplan@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Bryan Douglas Caplan) Subject: Princeton Libertarian/Classical Liberal Discussion Group Organization: Princeton University Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 00:05:35 GMT I'm a first-year grad student in the Princeton economics department, and I am interesting in forming a reading and discussion group for the exploration of classical liberal and libertarian ideas. I definitely have a reading and discussion group in mind, not any sort of activist group. I would like to take a broad interdisciplinary approach, covering philosophy, economics, history, political science, psychology...Topics covered would probably be fairly general; I'd rather get away from detailed policy questions and talk about more fundamental issues. Naturally I'd like to find out what topics other people are interested in, but some of the ideas that I have are: 1. Communitarianism 2. Private supply of public goods 3. Public choice theory 4. Traditionalist vs. Rationalist libertarianism 5. Religion and Liberty 6. Noninterventionist analysis of the history of America's wars 7. Mental illness: the Szaszian critique I don't know if the group would have any formal connection with Princeton University; we might just want to meet at a nearby restaurant or cafe to avoid the bureaucracy... There won't be any formal membership requirements; I don't care if you are a student or not, undergraduate, graduate, or professor. There's no particular need to agree with libertarian ideas either, so long as you have an interest in them. My most basic principles here are free inquiry, free and open discussion, and mutual respect. If you're interested, just e-mail me at bdcaplan@phoenix.princeton.edu, or call me at 609-258-7046. --Bryan Caplan -- --Bryan "The proverb warns that 'You should not bite the hand that feeds you.' But perhaps you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself."--Szasz ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 16:33:22 -0400 From: Duncan Frissell Subject: DisappointNet and the Pos P >In five years, they are likely to be identical, so I doubt its going P >to be a question of "shelling out". Things are happening faster and P >faster -- its becoming hard even for people like us to keep track of P >the increasing pace. No kidding, In Sunday's Times an article introduced a whole new player in wiring the home - the *electric* companies. Some companies in the Southwest are putting fiber and coax to homes to run advanced computer-based home energy management systems that let the utilities control peak loads and hence the amount of expensive spinning reserve capacity that they have to pay for. Wiring their whole residential service area can pay for itself in unbuilt gas turbine plants. That's 'free' high speed connections. With all that extra bandwidth, they are contemplating offering comms and entertainment services as well. Eventually, they were talking about fiber optic lines bundled *inside* their normal power cables. Duncan Frissell Let's see, the phone company and the cable company and the electric company all want to wire my house -- how much should I charge them? --- WinQwk 2.0b#0 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 13:43:18 -0700 From: dkrieger@Synopsys.COM (Dave Krieger) Subject: HUMOR: Mission: Implausible Tim Hruby wrote: >With the coming of a BlackNet, a PPL-based system might arise to >handle enforcement through traditional PPL reputation methods. The >major problem here is that internationally organized coercion (thru >central banks, OECD or G-7 tax coordinating commitees, Interpol, IMF --> ^^^ >what-have-you) is likely to move forcefully to suppress any >organization that is bold enough to advertise openly. Reading "IMF" in the same context as Interpol and other enforcement agencies somehow caused me to read it as "Impossible Missions Force"... and somewhere in my head a fuse was lit... [SCENE 1: The produce department of a Pic'N'Save in Campbell. Peter Graves squeezes cantaloupes until he finds one with a Sony DiscMan and a stack of photographs inside it. He puts on the earphones...] CD VOICE: Good morning, Mr. Phelps. Three days ago, a message was distributed throughout the world's computer networks announcing the existence of Mutual of Cypherspace, a criminal insurance organization allowing international lawbreakers to spread the risk of being caught. This underworld cabal is believed to be led by this man, a hippie millionaire known only as 'Mr. M.' This is his stronghold, an armed fortress in the mountains of Santa Cruz County, California. We believe that the computers used to operate Mutual of Cypherspace are housed here. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to penetrate Mr. M's compound, steal the computer tapes on his criminal clientele, and put Mutual of Cypherspace out of business. Should you or any of your agents be caught or captured, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck, Jim. [SCENE 2: The living room of the IMF's condo in Los Altos Hills. Graves is joined by Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Tony Lupus, and Greg Morris. For some reason, Landau and Bain are wearing their old "Space: 1999" costumes.] PHELPS: Cinnamon, you and I will get inside the compound by posing as international vitamin dealers trying to buy an Asset Forfeiture insurance policy. Once we're inside, Barney will sneak out of my briefcase with a box of floppies and surreptitiously copy all of the data from the computers. Meanwhile, Rollin will dress up as Dorothy Denning and make threatening phone calls. WILLY: What do I do? PHELPS: You drive our getaway truck during the closing credits, just like always. [SCENE 3: Mr. M's secret base. Phelps and Cinnamon are disguised as Dark Person and Sandy Shoreline, black-market amino-acid traffickers. Mr. M is played by the same character actor who plays every other "Mission: Impossible" villain. He wears a fake-looking beard and Birkenstock sandals.] MR. M: Welcome, Mr. Person, Ms. Shoreline. Please sit down. PHELPS: I would, but I am afraid I have bent this deck chair into a pretzel. Sorry; force of habit. MR. M: Why have you come here? CINNAMON: We want to buy an insurance policy to cover the risk of our assets being seized by the government. MR. M: What makes you think I would know anything about that? PHELPS: Um... I heard it on a CD I found in a cantaloupe. MR. M: No wonder you look so melon-choly. All I know about Mutual of Cypherspace is what I have seen on the Net: they can be reached only by posting anonymously to alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.stego, encrypted with the PGP public key found on specially marked boxes of Captain Crunch cereal. CINNAMON: Captain Crunch?? Do you suppose -- ? MR. M: Don't even think it. PHELPS: Very interesting. Let me make a note of this. [He opens his briefcase. Barney is wedged inside.] PHELPS: Did you copy the insurance data yet? BARNEY: Everything on his hard disk is encrypted. We'll have to take the data back to the lab to work on it. PHELPS: First, let's try to get the encryption key out of Mr. M by drugging him. [He turns to Mr. M.] Before we go, would you like to try a free sample of Whiz Bang, our caffeine- and phenylalanine- laced stimulant drink? MR. M: No, thanks; I had a Diet Coke with lunch. And I don't take nutritional supplements from people who look like Keith Richards, either. [SCENE 4: The IMF computer lab.] BARNEY: It's no use, Jim; their encryption is too good. PHELPS: Keep working on it, Barney; we can't put Mr. M out of business without those data. We've got to protect the world from unregulated commerce! Rollin, any luck with those phone calls? ROLLIN: I can't get through his screening service. PHELPS: Okay, then get out of that dress. It's time to go to Plan B. Barney, post our announcement on BlackNet -- no offense. BARNEY: None taken. I already posted our announcement, claiming to represent a consulting firm specializing in breaking and entering, disinformation campaigns, impersonation, assassination, abduction, brainwashing, breaking and entering, and theft of industrial and state secrets, capable of operating with impunity in any country of the world and able to penetrate any security system that can be built. PHELPS: [Chuckle.] What an imagination you've got, Barney. You know we don't assassinate people. Have they taken the bait? BARNEY: Yes, we've already gotten a response from Mutual of Cypherspace. However, we've also gotten a job offer -- some bigwig in the software industry wants the source code for his competitors' new operating system, codenamed Tepid. PHELPS: Well, file it. We'll bust him later. BARNEY: Well, let's not be hasty, Jim. Look how much he's offering. PHELPS: Ay yi yi! We could buy quite a few tearaway rubber face masks with that much money, couldn't we? ROLLIN: Jim! You're not really thinking of going free-lance, are you? PHELPS: Shut up, Rollin. I thought I told you to get out of that dress. [SCENE 5: A truck crashes out of the main gate of Syntactech, Inc. The Impossible Missions Force are aboard, chuckling. Willy is driving.] CINNAMON: Jim, I got the tapes with the source code, but unfortunately I left behind the inflatable dummies of you and Barney. PHELPS: Don't worry about it, Cinnamon -- we're insured! [FADE TO BLACK.] dV/dt who probably watched too much television as a child ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 17:52:02 EDT From: Andy Wilson Subject: HUMOR: How Science Really Works From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Date: Sun, 26 Sep 93 17:51:23 PDT [...] Thomas Koon identified the "perrydigm shift" as the fundamental way science works. A theory is ardently argued by Perry Metzger one way, and then one day a "perrydigm shift" occurs and Perry is arguing the other side. I think Klaus! is referring to Thomas Koons, who is the father of the "artist" Jeff Koons, and either the inventor of the Zip-Loc bag or the electric hot-dog cooker (the kind with electrodes), and is the only known Octagenarian Extropian Rock Star, being the lead singer of the little-known L.A. "stooge-core" band Hardhats with Hardons, whose hit song "The Rocket in my Pocket is Boundlessly Expanding" is available at stores near you! Andy, who refuses to accept without proof that Shemp Howard died for his sins, or his shins, or his shorts, or indeed any part of his being ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 23:56:53 GMT From: price@price.demon.co.uk (Michael Clive Price) Subject: philosophitis Me: >> Place a charge on the merry-go round and fire through an >> inhomogeneous magnetic field and it would be deflected like the >> electrons in the stern-gerlach experiment. James A Donald: > A little lesson in basic physics. As most of the people on > the list are aware, the Stern-Gerlach experiment measures > magnetic moment, not angular momentum. A charged merry-go round has a magnetic moment. [rest of physics lesson deleted] > Are you now claiming that because the intrinsic angular > momentum of an electron is operationally different from the > orbital angular momentum No, I claimed they were the same. Go back and reread it. Mike Price price@price.demon.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 18:24:58 -0500 From: "Phil G. Fraering" Subject: META: List archives. Hold on a second. You mean there isn't a universal DAT format? What about using tar as an interface... pgf ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 93 17:28:34 PDT From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Subject: HUMOR: Mission: Implausible dvdt accelerates the CPF contest, and obviously is being paid by Synoptics (or Synopsis, or whatever) to write their advertising copy. My wig is off to him! But who is this mysterious "Mr. M." and is he really a hippie? (This posting will self-::exclude in 60 seconds.) -M. -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 20:41:50 -0400 (EDT) From: Harry Shapiro Subject: META: List archives. a conscious being, Phil G. Fraering wrote: > > Hold on a second. You mean there isn't a universal > DAT format? What about using tar as an interface... not sure. I have several archive DAT's at Warwick. If I could get the list on one of those... /hawk -- Harry S. Hawk habs@extropy.org Electronic Communications Officer, Extropy Institute Inc. The Extropians Mailing List, Since 1991 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1993 20:45:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Sulkowski Subject: PSYCH: Self love and love of others From: kwatson@netcom.com (Kennita Watson) > >I think I've found one of the keys, in the form of a sentence from >"The Passion of Ayn Rand", a biography by Barbara Branden: > > "The concept of unconditional love was totally foreign > to Ayn's thinking." > >This seems to be a major departure between Rand's thinking and >Extropianism. My intuition is that an Extropian, in addition to being >at least mostly in alignment with the Five Principles, loves himself >or herself unconditionally at least, also extending that gift to more >or fewer others as his or her temperament and values dictate. Certainly. Extropians see potential in people. All of us have at least some value, with the potential for so much more. I think that the problem with Ayn Rand was that if someone is not perfectly good (like a John Galt) then that person must be evil. Good/Evil is binary for Rand, not a continuum. This was a tragic error, IMEO. >I'd be interested to hear the insights of others on the place of love, >of self and of others, in the Extropian mindset and value system. >Among other things, it will give my conscious mind something to do >while my subconscious hacks away at undergrowth. I believe that love of self and others is important and valuable. I think that this is a psychological need of human beings. We are social beings and benefit from loving friendships and relationships. If you can't love people for what they are, at least love them for what they can become. Sometimes that's what others really need. For someone to believe in them and their potential. * . ====\\. ~ //==== || \\ ~ . *// || || \\ * // || || \\.~// || || \\// || || Mark \/enture || ==================== ------------------------------ End of Extropians Digest V93 #271 *********************************