From: Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Mon Jan 20 1997 - 07:15:24 MST
On Sun, 19 Jan 1997, Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:
> What I'm trying to say is that memes *mutate* over time. If
> unadulterated Extropianism isn't popular, it *will* mutate into
> something that is. Not, perhaps, in stages as drastic as those depicted
> above.
Exactly. And this is IMHO a good thing, if we can make sure the basic
memes (self-transformation, longevity, tolerance, optimism) can be coded
so simply that they will not mutate much themselves, while their "coat"
memes evolve into something powerful.
> Can Extropianism win? From my perspective, no, frankly, because like
> the Marxists, you offer nothing to replace the energies you have
> removed. In Marxism, they took away the profit-motive and didn't
> replace it, so nothing got done. If you remove all moralizing and
> self-righteousness and coercion and victimization and resentment and so
> on, nothing is left to propel the meme forward. Extropianism isn't
> quite so morality-free, which is why it survives, but it still has
> nothing to replace the power-engines it has forsaken.
That was a good point. But extropianism (and transhumanism) can probably
create new power-engines and ways of focussing human emotions: digital
communities, divergent versions of humanity, blaming everything on the
entropians :-) Other examples?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:02 MST