[extropy-chat] Re: Encryption revolution

Dirk Bruere dirk at neopax.com
Fri Dec 12 20:07:22 UTC 2003


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harvey Newstrom" <mail at harveynewstrom.com>
To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 7:47 PM
Subject: RE: [extropy-chat] Re: Encryption revolution


> Christian Weisgerber wrote,
> > It's a straightforward case of self-selection.  As Eugen has
> > pointed out, extended participation in online fora is usually
> > incompatible with getting things done.  Those people actually
> > working on >H goals are, well, busy working.  Those that
> > remain here (and likely most that were attracted in the first
> > place) are those that don't offer anything but talk.
>
> This is a historical problem.  People who actually get busy doing real
work
> tend to drop off the list.  People who don't have anything better to do
tend
> to appear here.  Many people on the edge, tend to pop in and out over the
> years.  Many of the movers and shakers from the original movements have
gone
> off to pursue their own agendas elsewhere.  Somehow, none of these agendas
> ever actually get implemented here.
>
> > I'm still as much a transhumanist as I was when I first heard
> > about it, but over the last few years I have become severely
> > disillusioned about the extropian and transhumanist
> > _movement_.  It's a fanboy club that exerts no influence
> > whatsoever on actual technological or social development and
> > that will probably be overrun in the medium term by the
> > progress happening in the real world.
>
> This is 100% true.  I know people will deny it, because it's no fun
> admitting it.  But most of the examples of people doing things involve
> "fanboy" activities.  Creating websites about this stuff, writing books
> about this stuff, holding chats about this stuff, holding conferences
about
> this stuff, etc.  All of it is just talk.  It used to be that nobody was
> talking about this stuff except us.  But in this millennium, everybody is
> talking about it.  Sadly, our books aren't best sellers.  Our websites
> aren't insanely popular.  Our leaders aren't on the cutting edge of any
> technologies.  We aren't inventing new things.  We are just creatively
> imagining what might be.  While the companies actually working in these
> fields and the governments actually guiding these advancements are paying
> little if any attention to us.
>
> We are not only on the fringe of humanity, but we are on the fringe of
> transhumanity.  We are not centrally involved in real nanotech, AI,
> robotics, cloning, and immortality.  All of our organizations are fans of
> these technologies, but not developers of these technologies.  Even our
> organizations that claim to be developers of technologies are little more
> than clearinghouses for other people's news releases about other people's
> advances.
>
> The future is not being invented here!  And we will never fix this problem
> until enough of us recognize the truth.

That may be the situation now, but it is going to change rapidly, and soon.
Transhumanism is about to enter the global political arena in a big way, and
it is politics that will determine the course of events more than science.
And politics is nothing but talk.

Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millennium
http://www.theconsensus.org




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