From: Chris Hind (chind@juno.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 1996 - 00:18:45 MST
>I have nothing against highly respected people (a.k.a. "leaders); in fact, I
>wish to become one myself. But I believe that people's most influential
>leaders should be themselves; that people should look to themselves to
decide
>what to do with their lives rather than doing what others say they "should"
>do.
Perhaps I was unclear. This is exactly the type of "leader" I was referring
to. Leaders in industry such as Bill Gates or Marc Andreessen--Leaders of
ideas and yes the do generate media hype. Also tell me if extropians
created a good deal of media hype that we wouldn't be further in the
revolution then we are now? Hype is to the people as religion is. Hype is a
POWERFUL memetic strategy and all without violating rights. I completely
agree with you.
>The revolution that is occuring right now on this planet in freedom and
>independence of thought and the general "waking up" of humanity is a very
>quiet revolution. It's a revolution that takes place within individual
>humans, as individuals start realizing that they can take control of their
own
>lives and become the people they want to be.
I know. When everyone attains this new level of self-awareness and
independence it WILL be incredible. You will see more ideas than in the
history of the human race. The second renaissance. It will be very "cool"
uhh, er "cryo". I'll love every bit of it.
>It's not something that receives
>a lot of media hype, because each time the revolution happens, it only
>involves a single person. People just start waking up and getting their
lives
>figured out; they start realizing what they want and how to make it. It's
>nothing that is decided by the government leaders, and they actually have
very
>little influence over the revolution, since they don't have fine-grained
>control over every individual's mind. The revolution is not an
organization;
>it has no leaders.
But the current "mindless masses" can currently identify with these
"leaders" and speed up the process. You're telling me that if Max More was
a news anchor he wouldn't be influencing masses of people and spreading the
extropian memes far and wide? I'm sure even after "The Great Libertarian
Awakening" we will still have "leaders" in ideas. Hype & "leaders" also
define standards by having everyone focus on one product such as the hype
Microsoft creates which allows application developers to develop for a
single platform even if another platform happens to be better. You need a
large amount of features and a small pinch of standards.
>> technology of the internet compared to the average person. Living up
>> here in the sticks, I find myself day by day becoming less and less able
>> to relate to the people in my community, as they are less and less able
>
>While on the first glance this may sound like tripe, it is true. I made
>the observation myself. This insight is not exactly comforting.
Exactly why we extropians should become more social with each other so we
can evolve together and not separate.
>I could see where this separation between the technological vanguard
>and everyone else could become deadly significant--the point at which
>someone invents a transformational technology that renders the users
>nonhuman. That might rupture the process of information dissemination
>and leave a lot of people behind, unless this was taken into account
>during the development of the technology.
Right on the money Kathryn!
"You cannot discover new oceans, unless you have the courage
to lose sight of the shore"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Hind Upward, Outward, ACTION!
chind@juno.com (310-374-5543) Redondo Beach, CA
NeoReality (Personal) http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6810/
Ethereal Outlook (Extropian)
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/6810/outlook.htm
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