From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 04:13:19 MDT
>From: Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com>
>
>Great. He has set the stage for
>cloning research to be associated with unscrupulous lying scientists in
>the mind of the public.
>
>I still claim that technology is harmed more by those promoting it than
>by its detractors.
Have hope, Harvey. Advances *are* being made, even though there are
times when it doesn't look like it. Take a long view and compare to
some years ago.
There will be fringe and extremists of any group. Always. Usually
they wax and wane, are more vocal and less vocal. In time, they kill
each other off or die (figuratively or literally). Usually ignoring
is the best policy. If those fringe elements do harm, then the group
as a whole takes a step back, and if the group has solid,
life-affirming values, after some upheaval, it recovers stronger.
The best that any of us can do, is continue our own work, in our own
ways, being as scrupulous and reputable as possible.
In my observation, Extropy Institute went through some of this in
years past. One story that affected me was a press piece about the
extropians printed in the San Jose Metro (a widely-distributed
freebee entertainment rag) in April 1995. Three extropians were on
the cover with maniacal looks in their eyes with a "Freeze Your
Head" cover title. Inside they appeared in Buckaroo Bonzai-like
outfits, carrying guns, and talked about their leather-clad S&M
lifestyles. I actually like these folks, but they had poor
experience with press interviews and therefore the result was the
Extropy Institute appearing as wacky-as-can-be.
At that time I was living in the S.F. Bay area, in the middle of
promoting myself as a scientific programmer consultant. After
hearing my haircutter say: "Extropians, do you mean those Freeze
Your Head People?", I removed all extropians links at my web site.
After a couple years, I put the links back.
The Extropy Institute has progressed a long way. The solid
life-affirming values prevail. Now even high school teachers in Rome
have heard of extropians. (honest!)
Amara
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." -- H. G. Wells
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