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At 03:04 PM 10/1/2007, PJ Manney wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Has anyone gotten a look at
Wired's Geekipedia? Under the entry<br>
"Futurism" is a breakdown of supposed Futurist schools:
Capitalists,<br>
Socialists, Totalitarians and Apocalyptics.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/geekipedia/magazine/geekipedia/futurism" eudora="autourl">
http://www.wired.com/culture/geekipedia/magazine/geekipedia/futurism</a>
<br><br>
Here's what they say about people we supposedly resemble:<br><br>
"Totalitarians:<br>
Futurists of this variety don't merely forecast or speculate.
The<br>
have a rigid ideological conviction about what the future holds, and<br>
they'll happily force it on anyone within reach. Prominent
schemes<br>
come from situationists, singularity enthusiasts and transhumanist<br>
visionaries who are so desperate to escape the nightmare of history<br>
that nobody else can figure out what they're talking about.
Major<br>
proponent: Project for the New American Century."<br><br>
HUH?! In their wildest imaginings, when did transhumanists or<br>
singulartarians become neo-cons???!!! Did I just wake up and you
all<br>
invaded Iran while I slept???<br><br>
Some of us may partially resemble the capitalists and some of us the<br>
socialists and some both simultaneously (and none ,thank goodness,<br>
resemble the Apocalyptics, who are Fundies), but for Pete's sake, do<br>
these guys know anything about actual futurism???</blockquote><br>
Yes I think they do but in this thing - this pedia - whatever it is -
they are ignorantly segregating for effect. <br>
Years ago Wired was friendly with transhumanism, especially its
philosophy of Extropy. Kevin Kelly, the founder, is a friend and he
admires Max and Eric, etc. As I emailed Mike La Torra privately, I
have been written up in Wired several times and never criticized or made
to look bad. There was no hate, but a genuine fondness and
appreciation. Wired had been the darling of futurist ideas for many
years. Then little by little things started changing. When
Alex Herd wrote about transhumanists for the New York Times in 1999, he
was objective and favorable. He later became editor of Wired and
things changed. I know he left quickly thereafter. Wired
started getting a little mean-spirited. But there was still people
like Mark Frauenfedler and Brian Alexander and RU Sirius who were not
transhumanists but respected us. Over time, changed continued and
some of the writers got snotty. Bruce Sterling still writes for
Wired. Bruce does not speak well of transhumanism and he has a loud
voice.<br><br>
In short, Wired has changed. <br><br>
Natasha<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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<dd><font size=2><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Natasha
</a><a href="http://www.natasha.cc/">Vita-More</a> </font>
<dd>PhD Candidate, Planetary Collegium -University of Plymouth - Faculty
of Technology,
<dd><font size=2>School of Computing, Communications and
Electronics</font>, <i>Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive
Arts</i> <br><br>
<dd><font face="Times New Roman, Times"><i>If you draw a circle in the
sand and study only what's inside the circle, then that is a
closed-system perspective. If you study what is inside the circle and
everything outside the circle, then that is an open system perspective. -
</i>Buckminster Fuller</font>
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