[extropy-chat] Brian Alexander shooting fish in a barrel

[Spike]

> I was somewhat baffled by Natasha's enthusiasm for Brian 
> Alexander's book... Damien

Damien, I may be missing something here, but I saw
nothing in Brian Alexander's passages I would consider
negative.  Slightly smart-assed perhaps, but I am
very forgiving of that sorta thing.  {8^D

Lets take them in order:

1.  ...There is some debate within Extropianism and
transhumanism about just how libertarian the movements are...

True.

2.  ...but they believe in the Heinleinian concept of glorifying brain
power...

A nonsequitur, but mostly true anyway.
 
3.  ...They think that only a few people are smart enough and daring
enough to
accept the Extropian challenge...

Ja, sorta true.  Most are too apathetic to study it.
Any sufficiently advanced laziness is indistinguishable
from stupidity.

4. ...and they will be the ones who are saved...

Not really.  Any AI worth the title could likely figure
out a way to upload everyone.  Perhaps he was thinking
about cryonics?  I can assure him, all who perish before
the singularity *without* cryonics is gone forever.

5. ...The uninitiated, the retrograde Volk trapped by religious
> superstition and fear of the new, well, they will be left behind...

Behind where?  The religious are coming along too, they don't
even need to be believers.  Again perhaps he was thinking
about cryonics, in which case I will accept his commentary.

6.  > ...The Extropians were fully aware that some people found them
> and their agenda funny, sometimes even scary... 

Im guilty as charged here.  I don't care if people are laughing
with me or laughing at me, so long as they laugh.

7.  ...but Extropians
> believed that, as the ultimate early adopters, they could 
> help lead the enlightened world into the bright sunshine of the
future...

YES!

Seems clear to me that most of humanity's biggest problems
have been solved.  The solutions have not been uniformly
implemented however.

8. ...Big declarations
> about that future attracted some minor media interest to the
> Extropians, partly because they made for an easy story...

Ja, true.  How can declarations about the future be anything
but big?  We are living in the midst of a vast explosion of just
about everything.  Far from being in equilibrium, we are a
speciest that cries out for the newest techno-tool, the next step, 
more more more, better, faster, cheaper, please, NOW!  

Dontcha just love it?  {8-]

9. ...Writing
> about them was like shooting fish in a barrel-the smart-alecky jokes
> practically wrote themselves...

No objections from me.  Smart-ass jokes make news stories
readable.  A certain percentage of people will read the
stories, laugh, then stop laughing and realize that the
extropians are absolutely right.  Thats how I found this
outfit: article in Skeptical Inquirer about 7 or 8 yrs ago.

10. Sexy Natasha... etc... Max... etc.

Irrelevant (but not particularly critical) commentary.

11. ...Other Extropians were a mixed bag. In general they had a tendency
> to overestimate their intellectual prowess. A few could be
> insufferable, regarding any challenge to their wildly optimistic
> claims for technology as the result of childlike ignorance...

Well, its true, is it not?  Some of the extropians are the most
pleasant people on the planet.  But we have also known extropians 
who are the most insufferable sons-a-bitches you ever saw.  Of course, 
we may not all agree on which is which, just that there are some 
of each.  {8^D  So, fair statement.  We sometimes pay insufficient
attention to basic human kindness.  We need to treat each other
better (yes I know the counter-arguments). 

12.  > ...Extropians were constantly trying to create new memes...

Thanks!  Brian is very kind.  Very true comment.  I hope.

13.  > ...They wanted the language of immortality, human transformation,
> and extreme self-determination to become ingrained values around
> the world, but the Extropians did not make their job any easier with
> that name and its space-cadet ring, and their insistence on saying
> things that made other people uncomfortable, Nietzschean-sounding
> pronouncements about metabrains and ultra humans and the
> ascendance of the intelligent...

Some of this comment is true-ish.  It isn't clear to me
why space-cadet names, Neitzschean pronouncements, metabrains
and ultrahumans should make other people uncomfortable.  Perhaps
that is just his point: I, an extropian, don't see why this kinda
stuff should make people uncomfortable.  Someone please spell
out for me why the squick factor on all this.  


14. ...It sometimes sounded as if they were
> plotting a future world in which they could take revenge on every
> jock who ever made fun of the smart kids... Damien Broderick

Well, in a very loose sense, I guess that is right.  In my
vision of the future, it really isn't revenge at all, for the 
smart-ass jocks will benefit right along with the rest of us.
The Luddites who want us all to die might suffer a setback or
two, of course.  {8^D

What was it in these paragraphs you objectionable?

spike