[extropy-chat] Reccommendations for a mailing list

[Mike Lorrey]

I remember what it was like, and Michael Butlers description is more
accurate, though being 1996 nobody was even planning their Y2K bunkers
yet for another year or two. We talked of utility fog and smart
weapons, jupiter brains, matrioska spheres, travelling relativistically
and communicating via entangled particles. Snow Crash was THE novel
that people read to blow their minds. Johnny Mnemonic, Count Zero,
Lawnmowerman were still unanachronistic fiction and everybody was
looking forward to accessing the Metaverse via fiber optic to everyones
homes (until the CRA of 1998 killed that dream).

To cryo or not to cryo was a perennial debate between the old hipsters
and the young nano-santa fans. Caloric restriction vs. cave man
dieting. Energy conservation vs pave the universe with nuke plants (my
answer was yes to both). Cryptography vs steganography (or both). One
extrope was the first internet centerfold, we had one of the first
online art galleries, and extropians were central to devising many of
the tools that created ecommerce.

Now, the time when list traffic was low and the few posts there were
were long and well referenced was when the list was only accessed by
paid subscription. Those who couldn't or wouldn't pay belonged to the
>H list, which was about as active then as the extropy-chat list is
now. When the extropians list went free to the public most of the >H
traffic migrated to it.

When that happened long time extropians users who didn't want the
'diversity' passed around filter lists to pick out only posts by select
extropians.

Unlike Samantha, the rest of us were already scared of our government.
We'd already seen Ruby Ridge, Waco, "Roby Ridge", and the crackdowns
after Oklahoma City. We saw a federal government out of control,
assasinating innocent citizens in their homes, burning them alive,
shooting them, with medals, promotions, and commendations for the
perpetrators. We saw millions of Americans homes seized by the
government for self medicating, for exercising their 2nd Amendment
rights, or even for selling vitamins. 

Snow Crash had come out in 1992, and we were all expecting cryptography
and ecash to cause the demise of government as the economy shifted and
the IRS wouldn't be able to keep up, figure out who paid what to who.
Between crypto and Y2K, we were half expecting, half hoping Snow Crash
would happen for real. Anarchy, no, not that left-wing socialist
flavor, but true blue David Friedman anarcho-capitalism, was going to
save the world and outcompete the states.

Nobody realized how easily Congress could outlaw whole future
timelines.

--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

> It was a pretty different political world back then.   I wasn't as 
> scared of my own government.  There was no 9/11 and everything 
> thereafter.   This really isn't the "good old days".
> 
> Acting the same in very different circumstances doesn't seem wise.
> 
> 
> On Feb 10, 2005, at 8:45 AM, Bryan Moss wrote:
> 
> > Giu1i0 Pri5c0 wrote:
> >
> >> Interesting, I am on this list since about 2000 and always found
> it
> >> very interesting. But I have missed the golden age 1992-2000. In
> which
> >> sense the list was better back then?
> >> G.
> >>
> >
> > I've been here since '96 or there abouts.  They were talking about
> the 
> > golden age back then too, of course, but it was much more pleasant 
> > than it is now, or perhaps I was more naive.  There wasn't so much 
> > political talk, mostly because any "socialists" were quickly scared
> 
> > off by the gun-totin' libertarian hardcore, or talk of current
> events; 
> > it was all forward looking, abstract, almost as if nobody had been 
> > outside their Y2K shelters in years.  It was wonderful and
> outrageous.
> >
> > BM
> > _______________________________________________
> > extropy-chat mailing list
> > extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> > http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat
> 
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo/extropy-chat
> 


=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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