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<title>Extropy Institute Announces the Vital Progress Summit I (VP1)</title>
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<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="220" align="right"><font face="'Arial Narrow','Arial MT Condensed Light',sans-serif" size="4" color="#000000">01.07.04</font></td>
<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" width="100%" align="right"><font face="'Arial Narrow','Arial MT Condensed Light',sans-serif" size="4" color="#000000">VITAL PROGRESS ("VP")</font></td>
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<td bgcolor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" align="left"><font face="'Arial Narrow','Arial MT Condensed Light',sans-serif" size="6" color="#000000">Extropy Institute Announces the upcoming 2004 Summit</font></td>
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In this issue: ExI VITAL PROGRESS ("VP") Summit scheduled for February, 2004; and Welcome to Honorary Advisor -Prof. Tom W. Bell
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<ul type="square" style="line-height:20px;">
<li style="color:#000000"><a href="#feature" style="color:#000000"><b>Killer Quotes!</b></a>
<li style="color:#000000"><a href="#article1" style="color:#000000"><b>The Surging Threat to Extropic Advance</b></a>
<li style="color:#000000"><a href="#article2" style="color:#000000"><b>About the "VP" Summit</b></a>
<li style="color:#000000"><a href="#article4" style="color:#000000"><b>ExI Welcomes its Honorary Advisor</b></a>
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<font face="Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="5" color="#000000">Killer Quotes!</font>
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"The finitude of human life is a blessing for every
individual, whether he knows it or not." And: "The
immortals cannot be noble." -- Leon Kass, chairman of
the President's Council on Bioethics<p>
"The worst possible way to resolve [the question of life
extension] is to leave it up to individual choice. There is
no known social good coming from the conquest of
death." - Daniel Callahan<p>
"The whole effort to defeat death, it seems to me, is a
kind of striving that speaks of a kind of serious lack of a
certain kind of moral perspective. - Francis Fukuyama<p>
"The pursuit of perfect bodies and further life extension
will deflect us from realizing more fully the aspirations
to which our lives naturally point, from living well rather
than merely staying alive." - Leon Kass in The
Washington Post<p>
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<b>Greetings!</b>
<p>Recent and accelerating scientific advances may have
you excited about extropic goals of extended life,
heightened intelligence, and so on. But hold on! The
forces of reaction are surging and we need to respond
now. Extropy Institute is well into the planning process
for the upcoming Vital Progress Summit, set for
February 2004. In this newsletter, we explain why this
Summit is needed so urgently, how it will work, what
we aim to accomplish, and who we expect to
participate.
<p>The Summit is ExI's proactive response to three
disturbing pivotal developments: <i>Beyond
Therapy</i> - the
report of
the US President's Council on Bioethics headed by arch-
bioconservative and neophobe Leon Kass (and including
avowed anti-posthuman Francis Fukuyama); <i>The
New
Atlantis</i> publication - a high-powered rallying point
for
the neo-Luddites; and the <b>Precautionary
Principle</b> - a
idea being adopted by a diverse array of interest
groups devoted to blocking the fundamental
technological advances crucial to our survival and to
our extropic goals of overcoming human limits.<p>
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<td valign="top"><a name="article1"></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2" color="#000000">
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="5" color="#000000">
<b><b>The Surging Threat to Extropic Advance</b></b>
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Throughout history the forces of advancement have
struggled against the reactionary forces of stasis.
Europe suffered a thousand years of zero progress
during the Dark Ages. The Renaissance and
Enlightenment finally broke through that grim era. We
transhumanists are the heirs to the Enlightenment
values of perpetual progress for humanity based in
science and creativity. Recent years have seen
numerous developments that are showing the culture at
large the realism of our extropic goals of extended
healthy life, enhanced intelligence, refined emotions,
and the ever-extending ability to take control of our
form and fate. But now we face an unprecedented
convergence of groups intent on using direct action
and global legislation to halt humanity's progress.<p>
One of the most remarkable and worrying developments
is the presidential-level bioethics council. This council,
led by Leon Kass (once an opponent of in vitro
fertilization) has published a report, <I>Beyond
Therapy</I>
that takes very seriously issues at the core of our
extropic values and goals. From the preface to the
report:<p>
"In keeping with our mission, we have undertaken an
inquiry into the potential implications of using
biotechnology "beyond therapy," in order to try to
satisfy deep and familiar human desires: for better
children, superior performance, ageless bodies, and
happy souls. Such uses of biotechnology, some of
which are now possible and some of which may become
possible in the future, are likely to present us with
profound and highly consequential ethical challenges
and choices. They may play a crucial role in shaping
human experience in the fast-approaching age of
biotechnology."<p>
Backing Kass's council of intellectual clones,
marching to the same anti-transhumanist, anti-biotech
beat, are other numerous and organized voices. Their
favored watering hole - the forum that gathers and
disseminates their vitality-sapping fulminations of fear
and faith is <i>The New Atlantis</i>. Appropriately
named
after the Platonic fantasy of a perfect unchanging
society now lost to the world, this publication aims to
shape "the nation's moral and political understanding of
all areas of technology" in a way deadly to extropic
ideals and aspirations. Many other groups are getting in
on the act through the vehicle of the sensible-sounding
<b>Precautionary Principle</b>. This principle cripples
technological progress by requiring every technological
innovation to clear the impossible hurdle of
absolutely proving total safety. It unites extreme
environmentalists, anti-capitalists, scare-mongers,
biological fundamentalists, enemies of modern
civilization, and Luddites of all stripes.<p>
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<p><b><b>About the "VP" Summit</b></b>
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To counter Kass and his Council, <i> The New
Atlantis</i>, and
the seductive Precautionary Principle, Extropy Institute
has initiated a Summit in several phases. The first
phase will take place in mid-late February. This
<b>collaborative, multi-disciplinary online</b> event will
bring
together not only all kinds of transhumanists and future-
friendly folks, but also advocacy groups such as the
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation who need
advanced biotech research to fix devastating biological
problems. As Reeve has said, "I never thought politics
would get in the way of hope."<p>
The Vital Progress Summit aims to achieve real,
practical results. These will come in stages as the
project progresses, but early deliverables expected
from the February summit include a pithy response to
the Precautionary Principle, a policy and values
statement to counter <i>Beyond Therapy</i>, and a
comprehensive collection of links to pro-advancement
groups, journalists, publications, and educational groups.<p>
The Vital Progress Summit fits perfectly with and
realizes Extropy Institute's mission. The February
Summit will see the start of a continuing effort to build
a broad alliance sharing the goal of the continued
progress of fundamental knowledge of the human
condition and how to modify it for the better. We can
counter the bioconservatives by catalyzing the
development of a "party of life".<p>
You'll find more details of the workings of the Summit in
the <b>next update just a week from now</b>. The
core of the
two-week online event will be a <b>focused blog</b>
by invited
keynote bloggers. Others will be able to participate in
related forums and by commenting on the blog-project
work as well as by helping develop associated
resources.<p>
<p align="right"><a href="http://www.extropy.org" style="color:#000000"></A> »<p>
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<p><b><b>ExI Welcomes its Honorary Advisor</b></b>
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<a href="http://www.extropy.org/directors.thm"><IMG SRC="http://www.extropy.org/images/tombell.JPG" border="0" vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left"></a>
ExI welcomes Tom Bell as its Honorary
Advisor.
Tom is a professor of law and a policy analyst,
who has written widely about copyright, free speech,
gambling, and telecommunications.<p>
Tom is also a designer of ideas and, as such, coined
the term "extropy" way back in 1988. Tom was co-
founder and Vice President of ExI, and remains a
valued friend and colleague. ExI continues to be
infused by Tom's characteristic enthusiasm, good
humor, and probing mind.<p>
Welcome back Tom!<p>
<p align="right"><a href="http://www.extropy.org/directors.thm" style="color:#000000">Prof. Tom W. Bell - Honorary Advisor</A> »<p>
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