[ExI] The entropy of Extropy-Chat

[Aware]

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 1:16 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> The main difference with the old Extropy list is that everybody got older.
> And their sphere of action moved away from the old ways. In some cases
> it may be that their 'philosophy' changed and some of their old ways
> became an embarrassment that they would rather not discuss. Their new
> outlook expresses itself in different ways in different environments.

Yes, I think this is the main reason for the decline.  The confluence
of the Internet taking off, the dot-com boom, nascent recognition of
exponential growth, hints of disruptive technological developments
(bio, nano, robo, cogno) always just on the horizon,
Libertarian/Randian propensities finding an avenue for expression, and
some highly intelligent and *passionate* people coming together
resulted in heady times.

That experience set my expectations (unreasonably) that if such people
only come together in the right environment, the intellectual fires
would continue to burn hotter and hotter.  Now the "burning" is much
more like that described earlier in this thread by Will.  Oh well.  I
do know better. Thanks for the reminder.

Fortunately, I subscribe to a (very) small number of other lists where
very bright researchers discuss the leading edge of topics that once
fueled extropian speculation:  bigger-picture views of complexity,
chaos and information theory, evolutionary and developmental change
(and where epistemology need not be rediscovered each go-around.)  But
the dry academic humor on these lists is no substitute for the passion
of the old extropy list.

We've seen over and over again that new people join the list and are
excited to discover the same old epistemological puzzles involving
notions of qualia, consciousness, self, personal identity, etc.  Most
of these are motivated by the (easily understandable and to be
expected) desire to promote the Self, via duplication, augmentation,
amplification and immortality.  Very few understand, or are interested
in thinking, that shows the capital-S Self to be an entirely fictional
entity, while the effectiveness of its agency really matters.

We've considered creating repositories of past knowledge and arguments
arguments on these topics, which might provide a scaffold for those
interested in climbing higher.  But the passion is gone, and local
entropy reigns and as Gibson said, "the future is already here; it's
just unevenly distributed."

Silly (seriously) to have expected that here it could remain concentrated.

- Jef