[extropy-chat] Raelians

[Bryan Moss]

Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:

>Then I think that:
>The Raelians have 60.000 paying members worldwide and a lot of money.
>All transhumanist associations together have perhaps 300 paying members.
>I wonder what conclusions we should make.
>

While I agree with Eliezer about the dangers of reading too much into 
success (a similar message to the Raelians claim that there's nothing 
"glorious" about history), I think there's a few things that might make 
being a Raelian more appealing than being a transhumanist.  The first is 
leadership; I don't think any transhumanist movements have been started 
by people who are comfortable in leadership roles.  The second is the 
fact that the Raelians *are* hardline.  One frustrating aspect of being 
a member of a rationalist movement is that, on the popular account of 
rationality, you have to dilute your message.  You can see this 
especially in atheist movements, where internal concerns about being 
"militant" have *far* outweighed any militant element that has ever 
existed.  The third is that transhumanist movements don't seem to be out 
to make money; the more you can milk your existing members for funds, 
the more new members you can go after, and so on.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if you took 
transhumanist ideas, fleshed them out with some more practical 
here-and-now elements, and presented them as a slick *message*.  It 
wouldn't have to be a cult, I don't think, just a movement.  (I often 
think Eliezer has come closer to achieving this than anyone, albeit 
accidentally, with his Meaning of Life FAQ acting as a well-positioned, 
if neglected, "message" to pull in new blood, his stronger status as a 
personality [ascetic Bayesian Master] compared to other transhumanists, 
and the more "hardline" focus of his brand of Singularitarianism.  
"Yudkowskyan Singularitarianism" also passes the all important test of 
meaning: I often wish I bought into it, because then I'd know exactly 
what I had to do.)

BM