From: Richard Steven Hack (richardhack@pcmagic.net)
Date: Mon Feb 25 2002 - 21:12:01 MST
At 09:45 PM 2/25/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Amara Graps <amara@amara.com> wrote:
> > HAKIM BEY wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> > By contrast, the anarcho-Extropian or futurians are also forced to
> > reify the eschaton
>
>eschaton? What's that?
>
> > -since the present is obviously not the utopia of
> > techné
>
>techné? Huh?
>
> > they envision- by placing perfection in a future where symbolic
> > mediation has abolished hierarchy, rather than in a past where such
> > mediation has not yet appeared
>
>What? Who's "placing perfection in a future where symbolic mediation
>has abolished hierarchy"? What does symbolic mediation have to do
>Extropy? What hierarchy is being abolished? Who says or believes that
>perfection will result?
>
>Is it just me, or is this guy writing to impress people with his
>vocabulary and expressing his ideas as obliquely as possible to seem
>"intellectual"?
>
>If I understood those words that aren't in my dictionary, I could
>rewrite what he wrote in two sentences that a child could
>understand.
>
>But then his writing would be exposed for the pompous nonsense it
>is...
>
>-Dave
>
>
>
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Wilson tends to write like the Situationists and other so-called
"postmodern intellectuals" - plus I think he enjoys the intellectual
somersaults for the fun of it... Some of the concepts won't make any sense
to you unless you have a background in postmodern (preferably French)
social critiques. I don't, so I just plow through it as best I can. I do
have some Situationist background so I understand the complaints about
"mediation", but some of the stuff - and therefore the point being made -
still eludes me. I'll read the whole thing at some point. What interests
me is that he had clearly had some contact with Extropian/Transhumanist
thought and perhaps with some Extropians/Ttranshumanists as well - which is
not too surprising since he is probably well known to people like Bruce
Sterling. Wilson, BTW, considers himself a radical Muslim of the
Ishmaelite branch - the most well-known examples being the Assassins, on
which he has written a book or two about their "spiritual
anarchism". Interesting stuff.
Richard Steven Hack
richardhack@pcmagic.net
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