[ExI] The entropy of Extropy-Chat

[John Grigg]

Damien Broderick wrote:

Rue the day, kiddo. The sigma dropped by at least 50% when Eliezer, Anders,
Robin Hanson, Eugen Leitel, Hal Finney, Robert Bradbury and some others left
the room. You have no idea. A pity the archives don't go back that far.

>>>

And don't forget about Greg Burch!  I greatly respected him for his
knowledge of history, political science and of course, the law (being that
he is a legal eagle).  Hey Max, what happened to your good buddy?  : )

Giulio wrote:

Too bad, because this list used to represent one of the most exciting
discussion spaces on the net, probably the most exciting. What could
we do to restart a Golden Age?

>>>

I remember people saying we were going through a "new golden age" about a
year or two ago...  I can imagine a group of folks here getting uploaded and
then complaining that their virtual universe was so much more interesting
and enriching wayyy back ten milliseconds ago...  ; )

BillK 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 agree.  I'm attending church once again.

John Clark wrote

Getting older really sucks, but it beats the alternative. I've been on this
list for 15 years but I'm far from one of the original members. From day 1
15 years ago when I was the resident newbe I've been hearing about how much
better the list was back in the good old days. It's like a ninety year old
man telling us how much happier people were during the Great Depression;
well I can easily believe that you personally were happier, back then you
were a lusty teenager now you're a decrepit old man.

>>>

I've been on the list since 1999 (anyone here remember the ancient period
known as the 20th century??) and I do remember how we had some peak
periods.  But the list in my view is still generally going strong and will
have many rich years/even decades ahead of it.  John, I agree with you! hee
Yep, we will all in good time be just like like the Dana Carvey character,
"The Grumpy Old Man."  "Back before the Singularity we had meat bodies that
fell apart on us left and right, and we LIKED it that way, Gosh
Darnnitt!!!"  ; )

Jeff Davis wrote

Mailing lists and to some degree e-mail in general are anachronistic at this
point.  More often than not lists that were very active in the 1990s are in
severe decline at this point.  Young people are using e-mail less and less
in favor of more immediate forms of communication.

>>>

I just don't see Twitter-type applications as the answer, but then if we all
had truly user friendly keyboards attached to our cell phones, maybe we
could make things work.  But there is something to be said about
thoughtfully written email replies, as compared to a lightning fast tweet
that gets shot out into the net.

I loved this thread!  : )

John
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