[extropy-chat] Mark Plus on Keith Henson

[Keith Henson]

At 04:17 PM 3/12/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>I don't agree with Mark's rather pessimistic assessment of Keith's judgment.
>It's hardly his fault if too few other people had the right ideas about space
>colonization,

At the time the idea of space colonies, at least of the sort where people 
can just move there on their own was economically wrong.  As Freeman Dyson 
pointed out, the cost of transport into space is about 10,000 times too high.

>or if certain weirdos like Timothy

That was Dr. Timothy Leary, one time research scientist at Harvard and one 
of the sharpest people I ever met.  Get a copy his autobiography, 
_Flashbacks_.  (Arel typed the manuscript).  An episode from his life that 
may or may not be in the record is that when he was sent to prison after 
being framed for marijuana, the psychological profiling test Dr. Leary was 
given was one he had created and standardized.  Of course he knew how to 
answer the questions in order to be put in a low security place from which 
he could escape.

You might keep in mind that the full PR resources of the federal government 
were used in an attempt to ruin his reputation when it was thought the 60s 
and antiwar movement had leaders and therefor all the unrest would end if 
those leaders were destroyed.

>Leary succumbed to the
>deathoid persuasions of people closer to him than Keith was.

Leary would have been frozen if certain people . . . talk to me in person.

>Or is it Mark's point that one shouldn't put effort into risky projects, 
>because
>one may find eventually that one hasn't often succeeded?

Probably best if I don't say anything.  Give me a call if you 
want.  928-445-4412

Keith

snip