> Yes but this backlash is only temporary until the idea "leaders" begin a
> new hype.
And then the old hype is mainly forgotten. The few really useful things
from it are in common use, and the rest is ignored. Since it is unlikely
we will see major breakthroughs during the short span of time the public
is interested due to the hype, many will simply dismiss extropianism as
pie-in-the-sky.
> >Interesting thought: there will be a lot of millennarian groups predicting
> >the End of the World around the millennium = hype. What will the reaction
> >be when nothing happens? This might be the right moment to really move
> >into the open and say "We have an INFINITE future!".
>
> Great opportunity and we could kill the great religious memes once and for
> all by making our appearance at the correct moment in conjunction with the
> approaching singularity where religions will not evolve fast enough to keep
> up with scitech and will appear more and more irrational and illogical
> making people flock to us rather than them.
Want to bet that there will be religions all the way up to the
singularity? I think you severly underestimate the mutation rate of
religion, and the general human need for it. Religions often deal with
unsettling advances in scitech by becoming *more* irrational, and it
doesn't reduce the number of believers by much. Lets just say that the
Hare Krishnas swear that the Bahadvagita is the literal truth, and it
clearly proclaims that the earth is flat.
> When that happens look for
> Extropians being labeled with AntiChrist and satanic memes. Max More the
> AntiChrist! Which will cause even more people to flock to us because we
> have been labeled "Taboo".
(Small contradiction here in your argument, since you assume above that
religion will loose its power; that implies that being the antichrist
isn't taboo any longer).
We will see these reactions *much* sooner. Try explaining transhumanism
to most people.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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