[extropy-chat] Join: Jeff Herrlich

[ben]

Jeffrey Herrlich wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm a brand new member, so thought I'd include a short bio. My name 
> is Jeffrey Raymond Herrlich, I'm 25 yo, living in Corpus Christi, 
> Texas. Taking a few college courses. I first learned about the 
> Singularity (and the associated concepts) around Oct. 2005 when I 
> read Kurzweil's TSIN. It blew me away; before that time, I must 
> embarrassingly admit that, I had never really thought about any of 
> these issues. Now I feel acutely aware of them, basically to the 
> point of a chronic mild anxiety. Is that an irrational thing, or do 
> most transhumanists feel this way?

Hi, Jeffrey.

Interesting. Personally, i suffer from a chronic mild euphoria when i
think about the future. But maybe that's cos i reckon we can't do any
worse than the state we're in now, and the only way is up!

Rather like a peasant in the Bastille that's been condemned to death for
stealing food, when he hears there's a revolution just started.
(Except i didn't steal any food. Honest.)


> I joined the SL4 mailing list, but I'm now 
> beginning to face the fact that I'm just not on that level of 
> technical knowledge ( and probably intelligence ) and I think my 
> posts there aren't very useful.

Snap! I unjoined again, it wasn't very useful to me.
But it's not about intelligence per se, it's about wanting to be better.
And doing something about it.
And, if you never met these ideas before, and you're not traumatised by
Shock Level 4 concepts, then hats off to you. Most people think radical
life-extension is a step too far, never mind Matrioshka brains.

> Hopefully, I'll be qualified before too long. Besides, my opinions 
> tend to be more philosophical than scientific. Well anyway, just
> wanted to introduce myself.

Good luck.

ben