From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Date: Sun Mar 23 1997 - 18:03:11 MST
> The Squirrel attempts to observe the list convention of not debating
> fundamentals, and will continue, yet he feels obliged to point out that
> the association of transhumanist technological goals with libertarian
> and anarcho-capitalistic political economics may be disadvantageous to
> both, and will certainly appear forced and unconvincing to persons who
> believe in one (whichever) but not the other. Certainly there are many
> thoughtful persons who find no obvious connection between these two sets
> of ideas.
There probably are such persons, but Max coined the term specifically
to refer to those who /do/ see the connection. Self-organization,
optimism, and limitless expansion can be applied to many specific
fields of endeavor: technology, art, epistemology, politics, and
anywhere else they might fit. If someone happens to like one of the
/results/ of Extropian thought, say, transhumanism, but likes it for
other reasons, then he may be a transhumanist, but not necessarily
an Extropian.
To separate some consequences of Extropian ideas from others purely
for political reasons renders the word, and the ideas, meaningless.
If you have a philosophy that implies /some/ of what Extropianism
does, then support that, and support those who might share some of
your goals for other reasons, but call it something else.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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