Re: The FAQ is completed!

Nick Bostrom (bostrom@ndirect.co.uk)
Sat, 20 Feb 1999 22:04:31 +0000

Natasha Vita-More wrote:

> First, one area where I did stumble was re extropianism and politics: As an
> extropian (and on the Advisory Council) I am *NOT* a libertarian. I am
> someone who votes on issues and not party aligned. This is important.

I suppose you are referring to the sentence: "Politically, the extropians align with libertarians on many economic and social issues, although this does not form part of their formal definition."; that is the only place in the FAQ where any association between extropians and libertarians is made. I could replace that sentence with a direct quote from The Extropian FAQ: "Politically, extropians are close kin to the libertarians" (http://www.extropy.com/faq/whatis.html), if that is more accurate. What do you think?

>Where you say, "The definition of transhumanism is based on
> contributions by many people,
> especially Kathryn Aegis and Max More" I find this inaccurate.

What I meant was that the definition used in the FAQ is especially due to these two people (and that is entirely accurate). So I could change it to "The definition used in this FAQ is based...". Would that satisfy you?

> Secondly, Max More originally defined Transhumanism.

With all due respect to Max, I don't think that is quite accurate. The term was coined by Julian Huxley in 1957. The concept has formed gradually under the influence of many people, including important contributions from Max. But no one person defined or originated transhumanism.

Nick Bostrom
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb n.bostrom@lse.ac.uk Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method London School of Economics