[ExI] convergence 08

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org 
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of 
> John Grigg
> Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 10:30 PM
> To: avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com; ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [ExI] convergence 08
> 
> ...I bumped into my old friend 
> Spike Sunday evening and it was so cool to see him again...

Likewise John!

> 
> Spike, when did you hang out with Anders, Friestas and the 
> others and have that great picture taken?...

That was taken Sunday evening at that restaurant across the street from the
museum.  I asked them to bronze that dinner table, but they refused.  I may
go worship before it, or offer to buy it so I can set it up as a shrine to
the IMM.

> ...I hope one day to belong to the unofficial official 
> transhumanist inner circle of cool guys and gals...

Ja me too.  The photographer is a young lady who writes for Scientific
American named Wendy Grossman, another very cool person I was most honored
to meet.

...
> was like you had your own conference built around the one the 
> rest of us had! hee
> 
> John

It wasn't *my* own, but thanks.  I started talking to a man who looked
familiar to me but I didn't know who he was.  Every time he uttered a
comment, my thought was damn this guy is smart.  Eventually I asked, and
when he said Robert Freitas, I had to make like the fighter pilots when they
are pulling heavy Gs and need to do that hoo-hee-hoo-hee thing to keep from
fainting.  I am sure I looked pretty silly.  I used all my self control,
including some reserves I didn't know I had, to not shreak like the teenage
fangirls when the Beatles came to America in 1964.  That would have been
embarrassing and likely gotten us thrown out of the restaurant.

Robert and I met briefly about ten years ago at a nanotech conference in
Santa Clara.  Don't recall the exact year, but it was where Gina Miller and
James Lewis announced their engagement, so I think it was in about 1998.
Robert autographed my copy of Nanomedicine vol 1, which was hot off the
press then.

The cool thing about being a big fan of smart people is that in many cases
one can actually meet and talk to them.  This is so much better than having
sports heroes, which are adored by the proletariat masses, where you might
get an autographed baseball or some lame thing like that, or if one goes big
political stars, a handshake if you are lucky.

All these Jupiter brains at that conference, yet afterwards we could all
just stand around and talk, no fleeing hordes of groupies trying to tear off
a piece of clothing or a hank of hair.  It isn't fair actually.  Jupiter
brains should have screaming teenage groupie girls too.  Until that
situation develops, I will hafta do, but I will try to be as discrete as
possible in doing the high G non-fainting drill.

spike