Re: Extropians: The Un-<that 'c' word>
Abraham Moses Genen (futurist@frontiernet.net)
Sat, 21 Jun 1997 10:54:07 -0400
Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> On Thu, 19 Jun 1997, Kathryn Aegis wrote:
>
> > Unfortunately, many new ageish cults have adopted the symbols and
> > artistic style that used to be within the domain of those who
> > considered themselves pragmatic futurists. Reading up on Heaven's
> > Gate really opened my eyes to the appropriation of verbiage and
> > symbology to create a veneer of scientific appropriateness.
>
> Yes, "cosmythology" really irritates and worries me. It would be
> interesting to see how the new age crowd reacted if one used their
> terminology to describe something hard and normally considered
> unspiritual, like (say) national economics or bridge building :-)
>
> > Whether organizations like Extropy should accomodate this and change their
> > own style is another question. Any symbol might be interpreted in a
> > cabalistic manner; why should we limit our artistic expressions?
>
> Exactly. We in Aleph have even bigger problems with this than ExI;
> our logo *is* cabalistic (the hebrew letter Aleph). One solution we
> came up with to make the cover of our handbook look non-new age is to
> surround it by a plasmid: new age and genetic engineering usually
> don't mix (let's ignore Rael for the moment).
>
> > I would rather that effort be put towards correcting these
> > (previously discussed) citations of Extropy Institute as a cult and
> > getting hard information out about transhumanist thought in
> > general.
>
> I think this is a good idea. We should not let others decide what our
> symbols and ideas means, that is up to ourselves.
>
Dear fellow Extropians,
To what extent should we be concerned with image?
To what extent should we be concerned with substance?
A.M. Genen