[extropy-chat] Wired article on Drexler

[Natasha Vita-More]

  Amara Graps wrote:

I'm not a fan of Ed Regis, and I have been disturbed by his articles and 
books.  His book on transhumans was quite weak.  It was a book about 
cryonics and nanotechnology and culture, not transhumans, per se.  I wish 
he had not used the word "transhuman" so loosely, in deference to FM-2030 
who was teaching about transhumanity at the time Ed wrote this book and who 
Ed didn't mention, but freely borrowed the ideas.

>Hal Finney
> >The October issue of Wired magazine has a fascinating article on
> >Eric Drexler, by Ed Regis,
>[...]
> >It is a sad article on the decline in the status of Drexler and his 
> ideas for
> >molecular manufacturing.
>[...]
> >Drexler's personal situation is described as quite shaky:
>
> >   Drexler's rejection by the scientific and political establishments
> >   comes at a particularly bad moment. Last year, he divorced Christine
> >   Peterson, his wife of 21 years and president of his nonprofit think
> >   tank, the Foresight Institute.... Never a rich man, Drexler is barely
> >   solvent. He recently moved from his three-bedroom ranch house in
> >   Silicon Valley into a modest apartment.

> >It's unfortunate that he is dealing with personal
>
>This is old news. They split two years ago. Then and now, Eric
>(and Christine): on friendly terms and no crisis. And for many many
>months Eric has been seeing someone else. Hardly a crisis.

Exactly, and it was amicable.

> >and professional crises
> >at the same time, but keep in mind that it's common for divorced men to
> >move into smaller apartments at first.
>
>and divorced women
>
>It is useful to point out that the Silicon Valley is one of the
>most expensive places in the world to live.
>
> >I am confident that a man with
> >Drexler's talents is not going to end up as a pauper, the way Regis
> >seems to paint him.
>
>I haven't seen the article, but I'm sorry for people's misunderstandings
>about Drexler. I think, though, that Eric will weather it.

Yes, of course, but here again, another article that uses life's incidents 
(which most everyone has experienced) and builds them to make a story about 
Eric has some Entertainment Tonight interpretation of the facts.

Natasha

Natasha Vita-More
http://www.natasha.cc
----------
President, Extropy Institute  http://www.extropy.org
Founder, Transhumanist Arts & Culture  http://www.transhumanist.biz
http://www.transhuman.org
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