From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@MSX.UPMC.EDU)
Date: Fri Jun 08 2001 - 17:30:10 MDT
Appealing to the masses is usually quite difficult and expensive. Since the
Extropian movement is quite small, I would think that viable ways of
attracting more members could be the following:
1) Try to get a toehold in existing publications catering to the kind of
people who are likely to like Extropianism - e.g. Reason, Skeptic, perhaps
get a standing column in some of them, comment on issues that are
interesting to a larger audience
2) Improve the ExI web site, for example allowing more interactivity, the
views survey I mentioned in a previous post - a questionnaire where
Extropians (and others) answer questions about their views. The answers
would be accompanied by personal data (email address or anonymous handle),
or they could be totally anonymous, but always giving the answers from one
person seperately from others, producing coherent profiles (as well as
tabulated data about percentages of answers). This would also prevent
accumulation of frivolous answers. Anyone might find persons with the most
compatible opinions and contact them or start a discussion with those with
whom he/she disagrees. Anonymous remailing through the ExI server should be
possible for those who are shy (my wife's father was a card-carrying atheist
and once their mailbox got firebombed after he said something during a town
meeting in Chicago - some people might prefer to be safe). There could be
questions about views on uploading, nuclear power, PC in college, etc. etc,
both the common controversies and the subjects more typical for extropians.
It would be intelectually stimulating to try to come up with a set of issues
that would define our worldview (I say "our" although I am not a registered
ExI member, but when I went from hedweb.com to check out ExI last year, I
found I was Extropian all along, I just didn't know it). The questions would
have to avoid shepherding the answerer to obvious choices, like the
Libertarian survey which finds that almost everybody is libertarian -
instead they could stimulate thinking. And of course there should be the
option of saying "This is a stupid question", "I don't know", "I know but
won't tell".
3) Try to get links to the ExI web site to point from more sources - the
libertarian, atheist, skeptical sites (does anybody know the webmasters?)
4) Emphasize the humanist and rationalist nature of extropianism, in
contrast to, for example, environmentalists, who tend to be quite
misanthropic, fondly dreaming of the Earth without the unwashed masses to
trample the forests. There is definitely a backlash brewing against such
forces, and Extropian ideas might help to focus and refine it.
I think that Extropians are "rationalist humanists who abhor coercion, and
believe in the power of individuals to improve the world through science and
technology" - is it right?
Rafal Smigrodzki MD-PhD
Dept Neurology University of Pittsburgh
smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu
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