[extropy-chat] Reccommendations for a mailing list

[Samantha Atkins]

On Feb 10, 2005, at 6:31 PM, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> 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).
>

All of this sounds pretty wonderful to me.   I amend my previously 
stated opinion in keeping with something Dan Clemmenson said that 
struck a chord.   I will refrain from posting political things here 
except where I can show a strong connection to extropy.    I would also 
love to spend more time on envisioning a post-scarcity future and how 
to bring such about.

>
>
> 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.
>


Agreed. It isn't that I wasn't scared before.  I am much more scared 
now though.   Since 911 the degree of naked government power and the 
near automatic approval of same has increased drastically.   Checks on 
the power and public understanding of the danger have sharply declined. 
   Back then I used to still believe we the people could stand up to our 
government and would while we still could.  I really wish I still 
believed that.


> 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.
>
>

Now there is a bit of history I would be very interested in and that is 
directly applicable to extropy.   How was e-cash and crypto-anarchy 
stopped?  Is it a dead issue or is there still reason for hope along 
these lines?

- samantha