[ExI] The Extro List- Past/Future (Was: Re: How to Build a Dinosaur)

[John Grigg]

Hi Spike,

Spike wrote:
>What happened to us?  Do let us
>remember our roots and think harder.

I fondly remember and miss Robert Bradbury's frequent insightful postings,
along with Greg Burch (what a cool guy with so much real world experience),
Anders Sandberg (what a fun and creative mind), Nick Bostrom (who went on to
be a pillar of transhumanist academic thought), Max More (our ExI
co-founder, at least he still posts a little), Amara Graps (motherhood and
work I suppose keeps her real busy), Hal Finney, Eugen Leitl (I heard he was
the best dressed man on the list!), Mike Lorrey (I at least miss the big lug
and his many many posts), and of course Eliezer (we "saw" him grow up on the
extro list).  I'm sure there are still many others that I forgot to list
that you and others could add.

Jupiter brains, uploading, qualia, the civil rights of virtual lifeforms,
starship propulsion systems, libertarianism pro/con, right to arm bears
debates, "fun" math and engineering problems (Keith Henson doesn't have many
playmates left who can do the math/engineering mental heavy lifting and keep
up, we must now be a bunch of liberal arts grads...), and of course musings
on how cool life will be after the Singularity.  Yep, those were the days!

If we ever lose you, Damien, Lee (despite his recent postings, ; )  ) and
Natasha (our transhumanist matriarch, who keeps alive the spirit of the arts
here, and also keeps *us* in line!, hee), this list will definitely be the
less for it.

I think much of our discussion is "reprehensibly mainstream" because the
real world has so painfully intruded on our dreams of a bright tomorrow (the
war, the economic melt-down, the war on terrorism/our civil liberties,
etc.), and we instinctively realize that we must successfully deal with the
"here and now" to make it to the kind of future we want.

But there is no reason that the finest years of the list should not actually
be ahead of us!

Best wishes to all,

John  : )

P.S.  I was able to attend Extro 5 in 2001 because Robert Bradbury gave me a
bunch of his frequent flyer miles.  I will never forget his great kindness!
I remember sitting at a table in your backyard as Robert discussed with Greg
Burch, his upcoming commercial venture for nanotube research.  It was fun
staying at your house in a room next to Anders, and I kept on hearing pages
turn as he intellectually devoured the library you have in your home! lol  I
still wonder how much sleep he got...  Oh, and there is my cool recollection
of driving around in a van with Anders and Greg, with the conversation about
building bio-nano spacecraft to get extropy members off-planet as soon as
possible!  Finally, I recall Max taking time out of his very busy schedule
at the conference to talk to me about his life.  Good times.
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