From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Mon Apr 15 2002 - 15:05:14 MDT
[Fred Duhly 1] I am curious: how Extropian are Virians?
[rhinoceros 1] From the little that I have seen here, most Virians are not self-centered enough to make good Extropians.
[David Lucifer 1] Self-centered enough? Where did that come from?
[rhinoceros 2] Maybe not a very appropriate term. I was referring to the \"man can do it\" mentality against all odds and all social considerations. More below...
[rhinoceros 1] Practically (as Bill Clinton would say), there seem to be many Extropians who support posession of guns and demand that Arafat be taken to court because he destabilizes their world and threatens their forthcoming superman status.
[David Lucifer 1] True, and you can say the same thing about many Virians. What\'s your point?
[rhinoceros 2] First, I realize that my post was kind of insulting, while I was just trying to present my opinion in a funny way. Sorry about that.
Let me explain. There are questions about the feasibility and the desirability of an unlimited lifespan. Here, these questions could make a nice discussion. For the Exropians, however, the desire for unlimited life and going past the human limitations seem to be a first principle. They assume that it is feasible just because science eventually makes everything possible, and all versions of their social and political tenets are based on this desire.
Putting aside the question of feasibility, there are other questions which have been explored in a lot of science fiction stories: Who will *really* get there, what will be the reaction of the rest, how does a society of \"immortals\" function and evolve, etc. I mean what would *really* happen -- not what I or an Extropian would propose. For some people, the desirability of unlimited life would depend on the answers to these questions. Other people would consider unlimited life desirable on principle, and would try to make everything else fit.
As I understand it, Extropy is based on wishful thinking without any considerable scientific justification. So, they have high expectations from the dubious technology of cryogenics, hoping to send themselves to the future where some of their dreams will have come true. This means that it is not about unlimited life for mankind, but unlimited life for oneself (that is where I got my impression about self-centeredness).
Even worse: Knowing how economics work, a cryogenics industry has been developed to take advantage of the human desire for living forever and the fact that the dead do not need their money. They have nothing to show -- not even a revived bug -- they only sell hope. They just make some experiments, publish papers, and hire professional writers of pupular science books to promote their case.
Did I miss the point somewhere?
---- This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=25345>
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