[extropy-chat] All hail Will Wilkinson

[Jef Allbright]

On 1/4/06, Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
> Will is a guy worth reading:
>
> http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/2006/01/02/the-strange-myth-of-finite-status/
>
> Just think about it. It is not wrong at all to engage in positional
> games. Pissing contests are not the reviled zero-sum games that e.g.
> Nick Bostrom would like to ban.

This is analogous to popular conceptions of absolute happiness. 
Striving to attain status or striving to attain happiness -- each
drive the system to ratchet up a notch in terms of satisfying current
values.  A side effect of this process is more general growth.

>
> Let thousands of unequal flowers bloom, each higher than all others,
> in one of the world's infinite dimensions. Burn the atavistic neurons
> of envy out of your brains, fellow transhumanists. Become better
> persons by being better, not equal.
>
> Let the New Revolution begin:
>
> Liberte-Inegalite-Atomisation!

Atomisation??  Rafal, I think I understand that this is a reflection
of your strongly held Libertarian beliefs, but isn't "atomisation"
clearly anti-extropic?

I can imagine you shudder with revulsion as you read this, but would
you consider that cooperation is a much stronger principle leading to
growth, with the understanding that effective cooperation at a given
level of organization benefits from diversity and competition at a
lower level?

- Jef