From: john grigg (starman125@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Apr 28 2001 - 00:06:28 MDT
Brian Atkins wrote:
To the apparently few actual Extropians (the capital "E" ones, you know who
you are) left on this list, may I suggest we spend the next few weeks doing
some serious schooling and "education" of the sizable crop of newbies,
trolls, and gibbering incompetents who have made this list almost unusable?
(end)
As a lower case extropian I would not mind being schooled by the prominent
jupiter-minds on the list. In fact, as I have read the list over the past
two years I have been exposed to a vast amount of insights and concepts
which I might never have known otherwise.
Brian listed my subject line:
Re: Spike, the head throb!
(end)
As Z would say, "Yeouch(I have seen the film Antz about 100 times with my
roommate's three year-old)!" Actually, the title was, "Spike, the heart
throb!" and not "head throb!" I would hope Spike doesn't induce headaches
in people... It wasn't an outstanding subject line but I was simply trying
to applaud Spike for keeping the romance alive in his marriage.
The subject line which made me really wince was the unforgettable "joy or
rape" someone unthinkingly dared to post...
Eliezer wrote:
When an issue arises that has been previously discussed, the
poster is referred to the list archives; we may have only a fourth as many
messages as Extropians, but the messages are *all* new and unexplored
territory. In short, it's a lot like the Extropians list circa 1996,
although higher-quality and lower-volume.
(end)
I bet in 1996 people were saying how they missed the "good old days" of 1993
when the list was really worth reading! In fact, I have in perusing the
archives found quotes like that. Oneday, you will look back fondly on the
2001 list as compared to 2004.
John Marlow wrote about Brian Atkins:
Let me see if I have this straight: You're one of the main guys
endeavoring to create a friendly--pardon me, Friendly--AI, right?
God help us. I hope it's friendlier than you.
(end)
Try to look at it from Brian's perspective. He is the Extropian's Extropian.
What I mean by that is this... remember the taunt people throw at
extropians which goes like this, "if you're so smart why aren't you rich?"
Well, Brian is a rather wealthy self-made Extropian who has met the
challenge. He is our new new economy ecommerce champion who has among his
successes won the love of an intelligent and beautiful woman he met here!
And so being in a position of power and some prestige he wants the Extropian
Institute to progress and move on to the next level. But, when in his view
people on the list act as stumbling blocks he gets frustrated. We all have
to work with the man to go forward.
best wishes,
John
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