[extropy-chat] yo extropes

[Mike Dougherty]

On 1/7/07, Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> >> happy new year to ya's (even you'se american ones who might not
> >> be so fully deserving of it)
> > I would have let this go completely if I were actually offended by it,
> > but I'm curious what makes you say something like that?
> You ask a fair question courteously but I don't know you. You seem to
> be a newcomer to the list. Can you give me a brief introduction to
> yourself first? - that would help me to help you to understand my
> "worldview".

I find that to be a difficult question.  I live in America, which is
why I wanted to know what you meant.  I have recently worked with an
Italian living in America, and he gave me a very interesting
italian/european perspective on american culture.  I currently work
with an indian woman, who we more often have to ask direct questions
comparing our cultures.  I find the change in perspective very
interesting.  I think this is mostly due to our (american) myopic view
of our own importance in the world.  Compared with the cultural
identity age of countries like Italy and India, we're probably
suffering from adolescent hubris.  Considering that Australia's
cultural identity has had similar time to mature as the US (and from
the same UK parent :)  I wonder if you see a similar nationalist
attitude, or if you have also experienced examples of immigrant
cultures this way.

I haven't lived in many different cities in my own country, but I have
seen how a few dozen miles of geography can change attitudes towards
larger common issues (as well as how dramatically the local concerns
change)  I feel the internet affords us access to neighbors in the
global village in ways that only the fabulously wealthy from as little
as 50 years ago could even begin to appreciate.

I am a fairly recent subscriber to this group.  I'm currently employed
as a web/application developer.  The anthropology musings are just a
hobby.  That might have some relation to my theory that tractable
problems get solved fairly quickly, so in order to hold our interests
we need to think about the apparently-intractable.