<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><DIV>On Jan 31, 2006, at 11:47 AM, John K Clark wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Now I'm sure you won't use the word "soul" to describe it, not on the</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Extropian list you won't, you'll dream up some euphemism for it, but I know</FONT></P> <P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">what you're talking about. And shit by any other name would stink as bad.</FONT></P> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>No John, it is much, much worse. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>And maybe even worse than that on Extropians:</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>1. I Don't Know.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Am I an electro/chemical event, my body a generator, and my perception only a spark? Am I simply a rider, and my body a horse? One day, will I toggle a switch, back and forth, and have the subjective point of view of my sense-data hop between my physical body and a server rack? Will I one day die, and wake up with angels an ancestors? I do not know.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>2. You Don't Know, Either.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>And that is perhaps the worse part, from your point of view. But it shouldnt be, since you'll just make copies of yourself.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Right? ; )</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Bret K.</DIV></BODY></HTML>