[extropy-chat] PRINCIPLES OF EXTROPY (Transhumansit Philosophy)

[natashavita at earthlink.net]

I am posting the most recent version of the "Principles of Extropy."   I
have gotten several messages for translations, and I will respond to them
this weekend.

Thank you everyone for working with us to get these principles translated!

Cheers!
Natasha

______________________________________

Principles of Extropy
Version 3.11 © 2003

An evolving framework of values and standards
for continuously improving the human condition

Max More
Chair, Extropy Institute
more at extropy.org or max at maxmore.com



Extropy —  The extent of a living or organizational system’s intelligence,
functional order, vitality, and capacity and drive for improvement

Extropic — Actions, qualities, or outcomes that embody or further extropy

A Note on the Use of "Extropy"

For the sake of brevity, I will often write something like “extropy seeks
”
or “extropy questions
” You can take this to mean “in so far as we act in
accordance with these principles, we seek/question/study
”  “Extropy” is
not meant as a real entity or force, but only as a metaphor representing
all that contributes to our flourishing. Similarly, when I use “we” you
should take this to refer not to any group but to anyone who agrees with
what they are reading. Rather than assuming any reader to be in full
agreement with every one of these principles, this usage instead imagines a
hypothetical person who has integrated the principles into their life and
actions. Each reader is, of course, at liberty to reject, modify, or affirm
each principle separately. What this tentative, conjectural approach to the
Principles of Extropy loses in terms of compelling emotive power, it gains
in terms of reasonableness and openness to innovation and improvement.

Prologue: What is the Purpose of the Principles of Extropy?

Philosophies of life rooted in centuries-old traditions contain much wisdom
concerning personal, organizational, and social living. Many of us also
find shortcomings in those traditions. How could they not reach some
mistaken conclusions when they arose in pre-scientific times? At the same
time, ancient philosophies of life have little or nothing to say about
fundamental issues confronting us as advanced technologies begin to enable
us to change our identity as individuals and as humans and as economic,
cultural, and political forces change global relationships.

The Principles of Extropy first took shape in the late 1980s to outline an
alternative lens through which to view the emerging and unprecedented
opportunities, challenges, and dangers. The goal was – and is – to use
current scientific understanding along with critical and creative thinking
to define a small set of principles or values that could help make sense of
the confusing but potentially liberating and existentially enriching
capabilities opening up to humanity.

The Principles of Extropy do not specify particular beliefs, technologies,
or policies. The Principles do not pretend to be a complete philosophy of
life. The world does not need another totalistic dogma. The Principles of
Extropy do consist of a handful of principles (or values or perspectives)
that codify proactive, life-affirming and life-promoting ideals.
Individuals who cannot comfortably adopt traditional value systems often
find the Principles of Extropy useful as postulates to guide, inspire, and
generate innovative thinking about existing and emerging fundamental
personal, organizational, and social issues.

The Principles are intended to be enduring, underlying ideals and
standards. At the same time, both in content and by being revised, the
Principles do not claim to be eternal truths or certain truths. I invite
other independent thinkers who share the agenda of acting as change agents
for fostering better futures to consider the Principles of Extropy as an
evolving framework of attitudes, values, and standards – and as a shared
vocabulary – to make sense of our unconventional, secular, and
life-promoting responses to the changing human condition. I also invite
feedback to further refine these Principles.

The Principles of Extropy in Brief

Perpetual Progress

Extropy means seeking more intelligence, wisdom, and effectiveness, an
open-ended lifespan, and the removal of political, cultural, biological,
and psychological limits to continuing development. Perpetually overcoming
constraints on our progress and possibilities as individuals, as
organizations, and as a species. Growing in healthy directions without
bound.

Self-Transformation

Extropy means affirming continual ethical, intellectual, and physical
self-improvement, through critical and creative thinking, perpetual
learning, personal responsibility, proactivity, and experimentation. Using
technology — in the widest sense to seek physiological and neurological
augmentation along with emotional and psychological refinement.

Practical Optimism

Extropy means fueling action with positive expectations – individuals and
organizations being tirelessly proactive. Adopting a rational, action-based
optimism or "proaction", in place of both blind faith and stagnant
pessimism.

Intelligent Technology

Extropy means designing and managing technologies not as ends in themselves
but as effective means for improving life. Applying science and technology
creatively and courageously to transcend "natural" but harmful, confining
qualities derived from our biological heritage, culture, and environment.

Open Society

Extropy means supporting social orders that foster freedom of
communication, freedom of action, experimentation, innovation, questioning,
and learning. Opposing authoritarian social control and unnecessary
hierarchy and favoring the rule of law and decentralization of power and
responsibility. Preferring bargaining over battling, exchange over
extortion, and communication over compulsion. Openness to improvement
rather than a static utopia. Extropia ("ever-receding stretch goals for
society") over utopia ("no place").

Self-Direction

Extropy means valuing independent thinking, individual freedom, personal
responsibility, self-direction, self-respect, and a parallel respect for
others.

Rational Thinking

Extropy means favoring reason over blind faith and questioning over dogma.
It means understanding, experimenting, learning, challenging, and
innovating rather than clinging to beliefs.

The Principles of Extropy Unfolded

1. PERPETUAL PROGRESS

Pursuing extropy means seeking continual improvement in ourselves, our
cultures, and our environments. Perpetual progress involves improving
ourselves physically, intellectually, and psychologically. It means valuing
the perpetual pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Perpetual progress
calls for us to question traditional assertions that we should leave human
nature fundamentally unchanged in order to conform to "God’s will" or to
what is considered "natural". Achieving deep and sustained progress leads
us to consider fundamental alterations in human nature. This pursuit of
betterment stimulates questioning of the traditional, biological, genetic,
and intellectual constraints on our progress and possibility.

Extropy recognizes the unique conceptual abilities of our species, and our
opportunity to advance nature’s evolution to new peaks. Humans as we
currently exist can be seen as a transitional stage between our animal
heritage and our posthuman future. On the early Earth, mindless matter
combined so as to form the first self-replicating molecules and life began.
Nature’s evolutionary processes generated increasingly complex organisms
with ever-more intelligent brains. The direct chemical responses of
single-celled creatures led to the emergence of sensation and perception,
allowing more subtle and responsive behaviors. Finally, with the
development of the neocortex, conscious learning and experimentation became
possible.

With the advent of the conceptual awareness of humankind, the rate of
advancement sharply accelerated as we applied intelligence, technology, and
the scientific method to our condition. Upholding perpetual progress means
sustaining and quickening this evolutionary process, overcoming human
biological and psychological limits.

Valuing perpetual progress is incompatible with acquiescing in the
undesirable aspects of the human condition. Continuing improvements means
challenging natural and traditional limitations on human possibilities.
Science and technology are essential to eradicate constraints on lifespan,
intelligence, personal vitality, and freedom. It is absurd to meekly accept
"natural" limits to our life spans. Life is likely to move beyond the
confines of the Earth — the cradle of biological intelligence — to inhabit
the cosmos.

Continual improvement will involve economic growth. We can continue to find
resources to enable growth, and we can combine mindful growth with
environmental quality. This means affirming a rational, non-coercive
environmentalism aimed at sustaining and enhancing the conditions for
flourishing. Individuals enjoying vastly extended life spans and greater
wealth will be better positioned to intelligently manage resources and
environment. An effective economic system encourages conservation,
substitution, and innovation, preventing any need for a brake on growth and
progress. Migration into space will immensely enlarge the energy and
resources accessible to civilization. Extended life spans may foster wisdom
and foresight, while restraining recklessness and profligacy. We can pursue
continued individual and social improvement carefully and intelligently.

Embodying this principle implies valuing perpetual learning and exploration
as individuals, and encouraging our cultures to experiment and evolve.
Valuing perpetual progress entails neither universal conservatism nor
radicalism: it entails conserving what works for as long as it works and
altering that which can be improved. In searching for continual improvement
we must steer carefully between complacency and recklessness.

No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the unknown will
yield to the ingenious mind. The practice of progress challenges us to
understand the universe, not to cower before mystery. It invites us to
learn and grow and enjoy our lives ever more.

2. SELF-TRANSFORMATION

Extropy focuses on self-improvement physically, intellectually,
psychologically, and ethically. Self-transformation involving becoming
better than we are, while affirming our current worth. Perpetual
self-improvement requires us to continually re-examine our lives.
Self-esteem in the present cannot mean self-satisfaction, since a probing
mind can always envisage a better self in the future. In pursing
transformation we are committed to deepening our wisdom, honing our
rationality, and augmenting our physical, intellectual, and emotional
qualities. In choosing self-transformation we choose challenge over
comfort, innovation over emulation, transformation over torpor.

Extropy emerges from neophiles and experimentalists who track new research
for more efficient means of achieving goals and who are willing to explore
novel technologies of self-transformation. In our mission of continual
advancement, we rely on our own judgment, seek our own path, and reject
both blind conformity and mindless rebellion. Self-transformation will
frequently lead us to diverge from the mainstream because growth is not
chained by any dogma, whether religious, political, or intellectual. The
responsibility for self-transformation means choosing our values and
behavior reflectively, standing firm when necessary but responding flexibly
to new conditions.

Advanced, emerging, and future technologies deserve close attention for
their potential in supporting self-transformation. Valuing
self-transformation entails supporting biomedical research to understand
and control the aging process, and implementing effective means of
extending vitality. It means practicing and planning for biological and
neurological augmentation through means such as information technology,
neurochemical enhancement, communications networks, critical and creative
thinking skills, cognitive techniques and training, accelerated learning
strategies, and applied cognitive psychology. We can shrug off the limits
imposed by our natural heritage, applying the evolutionary gift of our
rational, empirical intelligence as we strive to surpass the confines of
our human limits.

Since every individual lives with others, we need to continually improve
our personal relationships. Our interests intertwine with those of others
making acting for mutual benefit an effective strategy. Self-transformation
implies not self-absorption but a continued attempt to understand others
and to work toward optimal relationships based on mutual honesty, open
communication, and benevolence. Evolution left us with animalistic urges
and emotions that sometimes prompt us thoughtlessly into acts of hostility,
conflict, fear, and domination. Through self-awareness and understanding of
and respect for others we can rise above these urges.

While valuing other people we will do better to focus primarily on
self-transformation rather than trying to change others. Recognizing the
dangers of controlling others suggests that we try to improve the world
through setting an example and by communicating ideas. We may be intensely
committed to the education and improvement of others, but only through
voluntary means that respect the rationality, autonomy, and dignity of the
individual.

3. PRACTICAL OPTIMISM

Extropy entails espousing a positive, dynamic, empowering attitude. It
means seeking to realize our ideals in this world, today and tomorrow.
Rather than enduring an unfulfilling life sustained by fantasies of another
life (whether in daydreams or in an "afterlife"), An extropic orientation
implies directing our energies enthusiastically into moving toward an
ever-evolving vision.

Living vigorously, effectively, and joyfully, requires prevailing over
gloom, defeatism, and negativism. We need to acknowledge problems, whether
technical, social, psychological, or ecological, but we need not allow them
to dominate our thinking and our direction. We can respond to gloom and
defeatism by exploring and exploiting new possibilities. Practical optimism
entails an optimistic view of the future, a commitment to discovering
potent remedies to many ancient human ailments, and taking charge to create
that future. Practical optimism disallows passively waiting and wishing for
tomorrow; it propels us exuberantly into immediate activity, confidently
confronting today’s challenges while generating more potent solutions for
our future. We take personal responsibility by taking charge and creating
the conditions for success.

Practical optimists question limits others take for granted. Observing
accelerating scientific and technical learning, ascending standards of
living, and evolving social and moral practices, we can project and
encourage continuing progress. Today there are more researchers studying
aging, medicine, computers, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other
enabling disciplines than in all of history. Technological and social
development continue to accelerate. Practical optimists strive to maintain
the pace of progress by encouraging support for crucial research, and
pioneering the implementation of its results. As practical optimists we
maintain a constructive skepticism to the limiting beliefs held by our
associates, our society, and ourselves. We see past current obstacles by
retaining a fundamental creative openness to possibilities.

Adopting practical optimism means focusing on possibilities and
opportunities, being alert to solutions and potentialities. It means
refusing to moan about the unavoidable, accepting and learning from
mistakes rather than staying in a loop of self-punishment. Practical
optimists prefer to be for rather than against, to create solutions rather
than to protest against what exists. This optimism is also realism in that
we can take the world as it is and do not complain that life is not fair.
Practical optimism requires us to take the initiative, to jump up and plow
into our difficulties, our actions declaring that we can achieve our goals.

By embodying practical optimism in our actions and words we can inspire
others to excel. We are responsible for taking the initiative in spreading
this invigorating optimism; sustaining and strengthening our own dynamism
is more easily achieved in a mutually reinforcing environment. We stimulate
optimism in others by communicating our extropic values and by living our
ideals and standards.

Practical optimism and passive faith are incompatible. Practical optimism
means critical optimism. Faith in a better future is confidence that an
external force, whether God, State, or even extraterrestrials, will solve
our problems. Faith breeds passivity by promising progress as a gift
bestowed on us by superior forces. But, in return for the gift, faith
requires a fixed belief in and supplication to external forces, thereby
creating dogmatic beliefs and irrational behavior. Practical optimism
fosters initiative and intelligence, assuring us that we are capable of
improving life through our own efforts. Opportunities and possibilities are
everywhere, calling to us to seize them and to build upon them. Attaining
our goals requires that we believe in ourselves, work diligently, and be
willing to revise our strategies.

Where others see difficulties, practical optimists see challenges. Where
others give up, we move forward. Where others say enough is enough, we say
let’s try again with a fresh approach. Practical optimists espouse
personal, social, and technological evolution into ever better forms.
Rather than shrinking from future shock, practical optimists continue to
advance the wave of evolutionary progress.

4. INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY

Extropy entails strongly affirming the value of science and technology. It
means using practical methods to advance the goals of expanded
intelligence, superior physical abilities, psychological refinement, social
advance, and indefinite life spans. It means preferring science to
mysticism, and technology to prayer. Science and technology are
indispensable means to the achievement of our most noble values, ideals,
and visions and to humanity’s further evolution. We have a responsibility
to foster these disciplined forms of intelligence, and to direct them
toward eradicating the barriers to the unfolding of extropy, radically
transforming both the internal and external conditions of existence.

We can think of "intelligent technology" in a variety of useful ways. In
one sense it refers to intelligently designed technology that well serves
good human purposes. In a second sense it refers to technology with
inherent intelligence or adaptability or possessed of an instinctual
ability. In a third sense, it means using technology to enhance our
intelligence – our abilities to learn, to discover, process, absorb, and
inter-connect knowledge.

Technology is a natural extension and expression of human intellect and
will, of creativity, curiosity, and imagination. We can foresee and
encourage the development of ever more flexible, smart, responsive
technology. We will co-evolve with the products of our minds, integrating
with them, finally integrating our intelligent technology into ourselves in
a posthuman synthesis, amplifying our abilities and extending our freedom.

Profound technological innovation should excite rather than frightens us.
We would do well to welcome constructive change, expanding our horizons,
exploring new territory boldly and inventively. Careful and cautious
development of powerful technologies makes sense, but we should neither
stifle evolutionary advancement nor cringe before the unfamiliar. Timidity
and stagnation are ignoble, uninspiring responses. Humans can surge ahead —
riding the waves of future shock — rather than stagnating or reverting to
primitivism. Intelligent use of bio- nano- and information technologies and
the opening of new frontiers in space, can remove resource constraints and
discharge environmental pressures.

The coming years and decades will bring enormous changes that will vastly
expand our opportunities and abilities, transforming our lives for the
better. This technological transformation will be accelerated by life
extending biosciences, biochemical and genetic engineering, intelligence
intensifiers, smarter interfaces to swifter computers, worldwide data
networks, virtual reality, intelligent agents, pervasive, affective, and
instinctual computing systems, neuroscience, artificial life, and molecular
nanotechnologies.

5. OPEN SOCIETY

Extropic societies are open societies that protect the free exchange of
ideas, the freedom to criticize, and the liberty to experiment. Coercively
suppressing bad ideas can be as dangerous as the bad ideas themselves.
Better ideas must be allowed to emerge in our cultures through an
evolutionary process of creation, mutation, and critical selection. The
freedom of expression of an open society is best protected by a social
order characterized by voluntary relationships and exchanges. In advocating
open societies we oppose self-proclaimed and imposed "authorities", and we
are leery of coercive political solutions, unquestioning obedience to
leaders, and inflexible, excessive hierarchies that smother initiative and
intelligence.

We can apply critical rationalism to society by holding all institutions
and processes open to continued improvement. Sustained progress and
effective, rational decision-making require the diverse sources of
information and differing perspectives that flourish in open societies.
Centralized command of behavior constrains exploration, diversity, and
dissenting opinion. We can pursue extropic goals in numerous types of open
social orders but not in theocracies or authoritarian or totalitarian
systems.

Societies with pervasive and coercively enforced centralized control cannot
allow dissent and diversity. Yet open societies can allow institutions of
all kinds to exist — whether participatory, autonomy-maximizing
institutions or hierarchical, bureaucratic institutions. Within an open
society individuals, through their voluntary consent, may choose to submit
themselves to more restrictive arrangements in the form of clubs, private
communities, or corporate entities. Open societies allow more rigidly
organized social structures to exist so long as individuals are free to
leave. By serving as a framework within which social experimentation can
proceed, open societies encourage exploration, innovation, and progress.

Open societies avoids utopian plans for "the perfect society", instead
appreciating the diversity in values, lifestyle preferences, and approaches
to solving problems. In place of the static perfection of a utopia, we
might imagine a dynamic "extropia" — an open, evolving framework allowing
individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social
forms they prefer. Even where we find some of those choices mistaken or
foolish, open societies affirm the value of a system that allows all ideas
to be tried with the consent of those involved.

Extropic thinking conflicts with the technocratic idea of coercive central
control by insular, self-proclaimed experts. No group of experts can
understand and control the endless complexity of an economy and society
composed of other individuals like themselves. Unlike utopians of all
stripes, extropic individuals and institutions do not seek to control the
details of people’s lives or the forms and functions of institutions
according to a grand over-arching plan.

Since we all live in society, we are deeply concerned with its improvement.
But that improvement must respect the individual. Social engineering should
be piecemeal as we enhance institutions one by one on a voluntary basis,
not through a centrally planned coercive implementation of a single vision.
We are right to seek to continually improve social institutions and
economic mechanisms. Yet we must recognize the difficulties in improving
complex systems. We need to be radical in intent but cautious in approach,
being aware that alterations to complex systems bring unintended
consequences. Simultaneous experimentation with numerous possible solutions
and improvements — social parallel processing — works better than utopian
centrally administered technocracy.

Law and government are not ends in themselves but means to happiness and
progress. In advocating open societies we do not attach ourselves to any
particular laws or economic structures as ultimate ends. We will favor
those laws and policies which at any time seem most conducive to
maintaining and expanding the openness and progress of society. Fostering
open societies means opposing dangerous concentrations of coercive power
and favoring the rule of law instead of the arbitrary rule of authorities.
Because coercive power corrupts and leads to the suppression of alternative
ideas and practices, we need to apply rules and laws equally to legislators
and enforcers without exception. Open societies are frameworks for the
peaceful, productive pursuit of individual and group goals.

In open societies people seek neither to rule nor to be ruled. Individuals
should be in charge of their own lives. Healthy societies require a
combination of liberty and responsibility. For open societies to exist,
individuals must be free to pursue their own interests in their own way.
But for individuals and societies to flourish, liberty must come with
personal responsibility. The demand for freedom without responsibility is
an adolescent’s demand for license.

6. SELF-DIRECTION

Extropy sees personal self-direction as a desirable counterpart to open
societies. Self-direction increases in importance as culture and technology
present us with an ever-expanding range of choice. Each individual should
be free and responsible for deciding for themselves in what ways to change
or to stay the same. Self-direction means being clear about our values and
our purposes. Having clear purpose in life not only brings both practical
and emotional rewards but also protects against manipulation and control by
others. Freedom from others brings fulfillment and personal progress only
when combined with self-direction.

Successfully directing ourselves requires first creating a clear (yet
developing) sense of self then implementing that vision by exercising
self-control. The human self contains a bundle of desires and drives built
into the biological organism through evolutionary processes and cultural
influence. Taking charge of ourselves requires choosing from among
competing desires and subpersonalities. While spontaneity plays an
important role, creating and sustaining a healthy and successful self
requires self-discipline and persistence.

Personal responsibility and autonomy go hand-in-hand with
self-experimentation. It is extropic to take responsibility for the
consequences of our choices, refusing to blame others for the results of
our own free actions. Experimentation and self-transformation require
risks; individuals require the freedom to evaluate potential risks and
benefits for themselves, applying their own judgment, and assuming
responsibility for outcomes. Pursuing extropy means vigorously resisting
coercion from those who try to impose their judgments of the safety and
effectiveness of various means of self-experimentation. Personal
responsibility and self-determination are incompatible with authoritarian
centralized control, which stifles the choices and spontaneous ordering of
autonomous persons.

Coercion of mature, sound minds outside the realm of self-protection,
whether for the purported "good of the whole" or for the paternalistic
protection of the individual, is unacceptable. Compulsion breeds ignorance
and weakens the connection between personal choice and personal outcome,
thereby destroying personal responsibility. Extropy calls for rational
individualism – or cognitive independence, living by our own judgment,
making reflective, informed choices, profiting from both success and
shortcoming.

Since self-direction applies to everyone, this principle requires that we
respect the self-direction of others. This means trade not domination,
rational discussion not coercion or manipulation, and cooperation rather
than conflict wherever feasible. Appreciating that other persons have their
own lives, purposes, and values implies seeking win-win cooperative
solutions rather than trying to force our interests at the expense of
others. We respect the autonomy and rationality of others by learning to
communicate effectively and working towards mutually beneficial solutions.

The virtue of benevolence should guide our interactions with the
self-directed lives of others. Benevolence naturally goes along with an
appreciation of the value in other selves and with confidence in our own
self. We act benevolently not by acting under obligation to sacrifice
personal interests; we embody benevolence when we have a disposition to
help others. Self-direction means approaching others as potential sources
of value, friendship, cooperation, and pleasure. A benevolent disposition
not only embodies more emotional stability, resilience, and vitality than
cynicism, hostility, and meanness, it is also more likely to induce similar
responses from others. Benevolence implies a presumption of common moral
decencies including politeness, patience, and honesty. While self-direction
cannot mean getting along with everyone at any cost, it does imply seeking
to maximize the benefits of interactions with others.

Self-direction means being in charge of our lives. This requires choosing
actions intelligently. This in turn requires independent thinking. One of
the less noble human qualities shows itself when anyone gives up
intellectual control to others. Self-direction calls on us to rise above
the surrender of independent judgement that we see – especially in
religion, politics, morals, and relationships. Directing our lives asks us
to determine for ourselves our values, purposes, and actions. New
technologies offer more choices not only over what we do but also over who
we are physically, intellectually, and psychologically. By taking charge of
ourselves we can use these new means to advance ourselves according to our
personal values.

7. RATIONAL THINKING

Extropy affirms reason, critical inquiry, intellectual independence, and
honesty. Rational thinking means rejecting blind faith and the passive,
comfortable thinking that leads to dogma, conformity, and stagnation.
Commitment to positive self-transformation requires critically analyzing
our current beliefs, behaviors, and strategies. To think rationally we will
readily admit error and learn from it rather than professing infallibility.
Embodying the disciple of rational thinking means preferring analytical
thought to fuzzy but comfortable delusion, empiricism to mysticism, and
independent evaluation to conformity. It means affirming values, standards,
and principles but remaining distant from dogma – whether religious,
political, or personal – because of its blind faith, debasement of human
worth, and systematic irrationality.

Rational people are not cynics who reject every new idea. Nor are they
gullible people who accept every new idea without question. Rational
thinkers employ critical and creative thinking to discover great new ideas
while filtering out indefensible ideas whether new or old. Rational
thinkers recognize that advancing individually and socially calls for
critically challenging the dogmas and assumptions of the past while
resisting the popular delusions of the present.

Rational thinkers accept no final intellectual authorities. No individual,
no institution, no book, and no single principle can serve as the source or
standard of truth. All beliefs are fallible and must be open to testing and
challenging. Rational thinkers do not accept revelation, authority, or
emotion as reliable sources of knowledge. Rational thinkers place little
weight on claims that cannot be checked. In thinking rationally, we rely on
the judgement of our own minds while continually re-examining our own
intellectual standards and skills. Emphasizing the primacy of reason should
not be taken to imply a rejection of emotion or intuition. These can carry
useful information and play a legitimate role in thinking. But rational
thinkers do not take feelings and intuitions as irreducible, unquestionable
authorities. Those processes can more productively be seen as unconscious
information processing, the accuracy of which is uncertain.

Extropy implies seeking objective knowledge and truth. We can know reality,
and through science the human mind can progressively overcome its cognitive
and sensory biases to comprehend the world as it really is. Humans deserve
to be proud of what we have learned, yet should appreciate how much we have
yet to learn. We should have confidence in our ability to advance our
knowledge, yet remain wary of the human propensity to settle for and defend
any comfortable explanation.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

Version 3.11 is the September 20, 2003 version with purely linguistic and
formatting corrections to version 3.1. My thanks to Brett Paatsch for edits.

More extended treatments of these principles can be found in essays, some
of which have been published in EXTROPY (now Extropy Online at
www.extropy.org/eo/). Practical Optimism was previously called Dynamic
Optimism. The original (1990) version of "Dynamic Optimism" appeared in
Extropy #8. A different, more practically-oriented version is available on
the web. Self-Transformation was discussed in "Technological
Self-Transformation" in Extropy #10. The principle of Self-Direction was
developed in "Self-Ownership: A Core Transhuman Virtue" in Extropy Online.
A pancritical rationalist understanding of rational thinking was presented
in "Pancritical Rationalism: An Extropic Metacontext for Memetic
Rationalism" at the EXTRO 1 conference in 1994. The original essay on
transhumanism, "Transhumanism: Toward a Futurist Philosophy" was published
in Extropy, and a later statement of transhumanism was published in Free
Inquiry as "On Becoming Posthuman". Answers to many questions arising from
The Principles of Extropy are answered in the FAQ at www.extropy.org.

COPYRIGHT POLICY

The Principles of Extropy 3.11 may be reproduced in any publication,
private or public, physical or electronic, without need for further
authorization, so long as the document appears unedited, in its entirety
and with this notice. Notification of publication or distribution would be
appreciated. The Principles of Extropy 3.1 are copyright ©2003 by Max More.
Contact: more at extropy.org or max at maxmore.com. 




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