[ExI] META: A modest proposal for the Extropy-Chat list

[Dan]

--- On Thu, 4/30/09, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> Could be.  I'm not sure. 
> List behavior, like life in general, has its ups
> and downs and perhaps we just need more ideas to bit
> into.  I mean, how long
> can we talk about the same old ideas from the same
> perspective?  We have
> been in existence since the early 90s.  I do not think
> because 'gene is not
> on the list that its quality is down.  He is genuinely
> brilliant,
> provocative, informative and no nonsense, but there are so
> many list members
> who have the same characteristics. Maybe because Extropy
> Institute is not
> longer in business there is no formal project to get
> involved in, or maybe
> because the early ideas are not mainstream, or maybe
> because we don't have
> to defend ourselves against attacks from WTA any more, or
> because TED has
> taken the baton of the future and marketed it, or that
> Kurzweil has created
> his own philosophically/pragmatically transhumanist
> business and not
> included many transhumanists, I do not know.  BUT,
> personally I like this.
> It is a very good sign.  We ought to be taking bigger
> bits of the present,
> near future and far future.

It could be, if that's what you're getting at, that some of the ideas have spread to the wider community, so there's less of a reason to participate here.  In that case, part of the decline in quality or, perhaps more pecisely, the shift in focus of the list comes from the success in spreading the ideas.

Regards,

Dan