[ExI] The Extro List- Past/Future (Was: Re: How to Build a Dinosaur)

Eschatoon Magic eschatoon at gmail.com
Tue Apr 14 11:04:09 UTC 2009


Yes, discussing these things was much more fun. But as you say, there
is no reason that the finest years of the list should not actually be
ahead of us!  I certainly hope so. I will post some fun ideas to
discuss soon.

As far as the "reprehensibly mainstream" part is concerned: it is not
that "the real world has so painfully intruded on our dreams of a
bright tomorrow" -- the real world tends to do just that, and we all
know it. It is that in order to get to our dreams of a bright
tomorrow, we must start right here and now in the real world. Things
like war, politics and economy are entangled with our bright roadmap,
and will always be so. Politics and economics ARE important.

I do discuss politics and economy a lot, but mostly on other fora.
Here, most political posts are only about hatred for other ethnic
groups, or hatred for other political or economical positions. Those
who are more vocal in expressing their hatred are also those who
evidently don't understand anything about real politics and economics,
so I don't take them seriously.

I welcome political discussions here and think they are very relevant
to what we wish to achieve. At the same time I think we should discuss
fun things much more.

2009/4/13 John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com>:
> Hi Spike,
>
> Spike wrote:
>>What happened to us?  Do let us
>>remember our roots and think harder.
>
> I fondly remember and miss Robert Bradbury's frequent insightful postings,
> along with Greg Burch (what a cool guy with so much real world experience),
> Anders Sandberg (what a fun and creative mind), Nick Bostrom (who went on to
> be a pillar of transhumanist academic thought), Max More (our ExI
> co-founder, at least he still posts a little), Amara Graps (motherhood and
> work I suppose keeps her real busy), Hal Finney, Eugen Leitl (I heard he was
> the best dressed man on the list!), Mike Lorrey (I at least miss the big lug
> and his many many posts), and of course Eliezer (we "saw" him grow up on the
> extro list).  I'm sure there are still many others that I forgot to list
> that you and others could add.
>
> Jupiter brains, uploading, qualia, the civil rights of virtual lifeforms,
> starship propulsion systems, libertarianism pro/con, right to arm bears
> debates, "fun" math and engineering problems (Keith Henson doesn't have many
> playmates left who can do the math/engineering mental heavy lifting and keep
> up, we must now be a bunch of liberal arts grads...), and of course musings
> on how cool life will be after the Singularity.  Yep, those were the days!
>
> If we ever lose you, Damien, Lee (despite his recent postings, ; )  ) and
> Natasha (our transhumanist matriarch, who keeps alive the spirit of the arts
> here, and also keeps *us* in line!, hee), this list will definitely be the
> less for it.
>
> I think much of our discussion is "reprehensibly mainstream" because the
> real world has so painfully intruded on our dreams of a bright tomorrow (the
> war, the economic melt-down, the war on terrorism/our civil liberties,
> etc.), and we instinctively realize that we must successfully deal with the
> "here and now" to make it to the kind of future we want.
>
> But there is no reason that the finest years of the list should not actually
> be ahead of us!
>
> Best wishes to all,
>
> John  : )
>
> P.S.  I was able to attend Extro 5 in 2001 because Robert Bradbury gave me a
> bunch of his frequent flyer miles.  I will never forget his great kindness!
> I remember sitting at a table in your backyard as Robert discussed with Greg
> Burch, his upcoming commercial venture for nanotube research.  It was fun
> staying at your house in a room next to Anders, and I kept on hearing pages
> turn as he intellectually devoured the library you have in your home! lol  I
> still wonder how much sleep he got...  Oh, and there is my cool recollection
> of driving around in a van with Anders and Greg, with the conversation about
> building bio-nano spacecraft to get extropy members off-planet as soon as
> possible!  Finally, I recall Max taking time out of his very busy schedule
> at the conference to talk to me about his life.  Good times.
>
>
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>
>



-- 
Eschatoon Magic
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Eschatoon
aka Giulio Prisco
http://cosmeng.org/index.php/Giulio_Prisco



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