🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <XTROPY-L%92120117554040@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>, IBARDALES@FORDMULC.BITNET writes...
>i would like to know what this group is all about.
>please someone tell me.

	This group is for discussion of extropian topics.  Read the Extropian
Principles below in full to understand what "extropian" means.  Discussion
of any topic within the Principles is encouraged in this list.

	Tell us what you think of them.  Any questions?


Mark Venture
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    THE EXTROPIAN PRINCIPLES V. 2.01 August 7 1992

    Max More, Executive Director, Extropy Institute

     1. BOUNDLESS EXPANSION  -  Seeking  more  intelligence,   wisdom,   and
    personal  power,  an unlimited lifespan, and removal of natural, social,
    biological,  and  psychological   limits   to   self-actualization   and
    self-realization.  Overcoming limits on our personal and social progress
    and possibilities.  Expansion into the universe and infinite existence.

     2. SELF-TRANSFORMATION - A commitment to continual moral, intellectual,
    and  physical  self-improvement,  using  reason  and  critical thinking,
    personal   responsibility,   and   experimentation.    Biological    and
    neurological augmentation.

     3. INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY  -  Applying  science   and   technology   to
    transcend  "natural"  limits  imposed  by  our  biological  heritage and
    environment.

     4. SPONTANEOUS ORDER - Promotion of decentralized, voluntaristic social
    coordination  mechanisms.   Fostering of tolerance, diversity, long-term
    planning, individual incentives and personal liberties.

     5. DYNAMIC OPTIMISM - Positive expectations  to  fuel  dynamic  action.
    Promotion  of  a  positive,  empowering  attitude towards our individual
    future and that of all intelligent  beings.   Rejection  both  of  blind
    faith and stagnant pessimism.

         These principles are further explicated below.  In depth treatments
    can be found in various issues of EXTROPY:  The Journal of Transhumanist
    Thought.   (Spontaneous  Order  in  #7,  Dynamic  Optimism  in  #8,  and
    Self-Transformation in the forthcoming #10.)


    1. BOUNDLESS EXPANSION

         Beginning as mindless matter, parts of nature developed in  a  slow
    evolutionary  advance which produced progressively more powerful brains.
    Chemical reactions generated tropistic behavior, which was superseded by
    instinctual  and  Skinnerian  stimulus-response  behavior,  and  then by
    conscious  learning  and  experimentation.   With  the  advent  of   the
    conceptual  consciousness  of humankind, the rate of advancement sharply
    accelerated as intelligence, technology, and the scientific method could
    be  applied  to  our  condition.   Extropians  seek the continuation and
    fostering of this process,  transcending  biological  and  psychological
    limits as we proceed into posthumanity.

         In aspiring to transhumanity, and beyond to posthumanity, we reject
    natural  and  traditional limitations on our possibilities.  We champion
    the rational use of science and technology to void limits  on  lifespan,
    intelligence,   personal   power,   freedom,  and  experience.   We  are
    immortalists because we recognize the absurdity of  accepting  "natural"
    limits  to  our  lives.   For  many the future will bring an exodus from
    Earth - the womb of human and transhuman intelligence  -  expanding  the
    frontiers  of  humanity  (and  post-humanity) to include space habitats,
    other planets and this solar system, neighboring  systems,  and  beyond.
    By  the  end  of  the 21st Century, more people may be living off-planet
    than on Earth.

         Resource  limits  are  not  immutable.   The  market  price  system
    encourages  conservation,  substitution  and  innovation, preventing any
    need for a brake on growth and  progress.   Expansion  into  space  will
    vastly  expand  the  energy  and resources for our civilization.  Living
    extended transhuman lifespans will foster intelligent use  of  resources
    and   environment.    Extropians   affirm  a  rational,  market-mediated
    environmentalism aimed  at  maintaining  and  enhancing  our  biospheres
    (whether  terrestrial  or  extra-terrestrial).   We  oppose  apocalyptic
    environmentalism, which hallucinates catastrophes, issues  a  stream  of
    doomsday predictions, and attempts to strangle our continued evolution.

         No mysteries are sacrosanct, no limits unquestionable; the  unknown
    must yield to the intelligent mind.  We seek to understand and to master
    reality up to and beyond any currently foreseen limits.


    2. SELF-TRANSFORMATION

         We affirm reason, critical inquiry, intellectual independence,  and
    intellectual  honesty.   We  reject blind faith and passive, comfortable
    thinking  that  leads  to  dogmatism,  religion,  and   conformity.    A
    commitment  to  positive  self-transformation  requires us to critically
    analyze our current  beliefs,  behaviors,  and  strategies.   Extropians
    therefore  choose  to  place  their  self-value in continued development
    rather than "being right".  We prefer analytical thought  to  fuzzy  but
    comfortable   delusion,   empiricism   to   mysticism,  and  independent
    evaluation to conformity.  Extropians affirm a philosophy  of  life  but
    distance  themselves from religious thinking because of its blind faith,
    debasement of human dignity, and systematized irrationality.

         Perpetual self-improvement - physical, intellectual, psychological,
    and   ethical  -  requires  us  to  continually  re-examine  our  lives.
    Extropians seek to better themselves, yet without denying their  current
    worth.   The  desire  to  improve should not be confused with the belief
    that one is lacking in  current  value.   But  valuing  oneself  in  the
    present  cannot mean self-satisfaction, since an intelligent and probing
    mind can can always envisage a superior self in the future.   Extropians
    are committed to expanding wisdom, fine-tuning understanding of rational
    behavior, and enhancing physical and intellectual capacities.

         Extropians are neophiles and experimentalists.   We  are  neophiles
    because  we  track  the  latest  research  for  more  efficient means of
    achieving our goals.  We are experimentalists because we are willing  to
    explore and test the novel means of self-transformation that we uncover.
    In our quest for advancement to the transhuman stage, we rely on our own
    judgment,  seek  our  own  path,  and  reject  both blind conformity and
    mindless rebellion.  Extropians frequently diverge from  the  mainstream
    because  they  do  not allow themselves to be chained by dogmas, whether
    religious, political, or social.  Extropians  choose  their  values  and
    behavior  reflectively,  standing  firm  when  required  but  responding
    flexibly to novel conditions.

         Personal responsibility and  self-determination  goes  hand-in-hand
    with neophilic self-experimentation.  Extropians take responsibility for
    the consequences of our choices, refusing to blame others for the  risks
    involved  in  our free choices.  Experimentation and self-transformation
    require risks; Extropians wish to be free  to  evaluate  the  risks  and
    potential  benefits for ourselves, applying our own judgment and wisdom,
    and assuming responsibility for the outcome.  We neither wish others  to
    force  standards  upon  us  through  legal regulation, nor do we wish to
    force  others  to  follow   our   path.    Personal-responsibility   and
    self-determination   are  incompatible  with  authoritarian  centralized
    control, which stifles the free  choices  and  spontaneous  ordering  of
    autonomous persons.

         External coercion, whether for the purported "good of the whole" or
    the  paternalistic  protection of the individual, is unacceptable to us.
    Compulsion breeds ignorance and weakens the connection between  personal
    choice and personal outcome, thereby destroying personal responsibility.
    The proliferation of outrageous liability lawsuits, governmental  safety
    regulations,  and  the  rights-destroying  drug war result from ignoring
    these facts of life.  Extropians are rational individualists, living  by
    their  own  judgment,  making  critical, informed, and free choices, and
    accepting responsibility for those choices.

         As neophiles,  Extropians  study  advanced,  emerging,  and  future
    technologies  for  their  self-transformative potential in enhancing our
    abilities and freedom.  We support biomedical research with the goal  of
    understanding  and  controlling the aging process.  We are interested in
    any plausible means of conquering death, including interim measures like
    biostasis/cryonics, and long-term possibilities such as migration out of
    biological bodies into superior vehicles ("uploading").

         We practice and plan for biological and  neurological  augmentation
    through  means  such  as effective cognitive enhancers or "smart drugs",
    computers and electronic networks, General Semantics and other guides to
    effective thinking, meditation and visualization techniques, accelerated
    learning  strategies,  and  applied  cognitive  psychology,   and   soon
    neural-computer  integration.  We do not accept the limits imposed on us
    by our natural heritage, instead we apply the evolutionary gift  of  our
    rational,  empirical  intelligence  in order to surpass human limits and
    enter the transhuman and posthuman stages of the future.


    3. INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY

         Extropians do not denigrate technology,  no  matter  how  radically
    different  from historical norms, as "unnatural".  The term `natural' is
    largely devoid of meaning.  We might say that any technological means of
    altering the environment or the human body is unnatural since it changes
    the previously existing state of nature.   But  we  can  also  say  that
    applying  our  intelligence through technology is natural to humans, and
    so changing both outside nature and our own  biological  nature  can  be
    regarded as natural.

         Extropians affirm the necessity and  desirability  of  science  and
    technology.   Practical  means  should  be  used to promote our goals of
    immortality, expanding intelligence,  and  greater  physical  abilities,
    rather  than the wishful thinking, ignorant mysticism, and credulity, so
    common to the New Agers.  Science and technology, as  disciplined  forms
    of  intelligence,  should be fostered, and we should seek to employ them
    in eradicating the limits to our Extropian visions.

         We do not share common cultural fears of technology, such as  those
    embodied  in  the  story  of  Frankenstein  and the myth of the Tower of
    Babel.   We  favor  careful  and  cautious   development   of   powerful
    technologies,  but  refuse to attempt to stifle development on the basis
    of fear of the unknown.   Extropians  therefore  oppose  the  anti-human
    "Back  to  the  Pleistocene",  anti-civilization rhetoric of the extreme
    environmentalists.   Going  backwards  means  death  for  billions   and
    stagnation   and   oppression   for   the   rest.   Intelligent  use  of
    biotechnology,  nanotechnology,  space  and   other   technologies,   in
    conjunction  with  a  market system, can remove resource constraints and
    discharge environmental pressures.

         We see technological development not as an end in itself, but as  a
    means  to  the  achievement  and  development  of our values, ideals and
    visions.  We seek to employ science and technology to remove  limits  to
    growth,  and  to  radically  transform  both  the  internal and external
    conditions of existence.

         We see the coming years and decades as being  a  time  of  enormous
    changes,  changes  which  will  vastly  expand  our  opportunities,  our
    freedom,  and  our  abilities.   Genetic   engineering,   interventative
    gerontology   (life  extension),  space  migration,  smart  drugs,  more
    powerful computers and smarter programming, neural-computer  interfaces,
    virtual    reality,    swift   electronic   communications,   artificial
    intelligence,  neural  networks,  artificial  life,  neuroscience,   and
    nanotechnology will contribute to accelerating change.


    4. SPONTANEOUS ORDER

         Spontaneous orders are self-generating, organic orders  and  differ
    from  constructed,  centrally directed orders.  Both types of order have
    their  place,  but  spontaneous  orders  are   vital   in   our   social
    interactions.    Spontaneous  orders  have  properties  that  make  them
    especially conducive to  Extropian  goals  and  values  and  spontaneous
    ordering  processes  can be found at work in many fields.  The evolution
    of  complex  biological  forms  is  one  example;  others  include   the
    adjustment  of ecosystems, artificial life demonstrations, memetics (the
    study  of  replicating  information  patterns),  computational   markets
    (agoric open systems), brain function and neurocomputation.

         The principle of spontaneous order is embodied in the  free  market
    system  -  a  system  that  does not yet exist in a pure form.  The free
    market allows complex institutions to  develop,  encourages  innovation,
    rewards  individual  initiative  and reinforces personal responsibility,
    fosters diversity, and safeguards political freedom.   Market  economies
    ensure  the technological and social progress essential to the Extropian
    philosophy.  We reject the  technocratic  idea  of  central  control  by
    self-proclaimed experts.  No group of experts can understand and control
    the endless complexity of an economy and society.  Expert  knowledge  is
    best  harnessed and transmitted through the superbly efficient mediation
    of  the  free  market's  price  signals  -  signals  that  embody   more
    information than any person or group could ever gather.

         Sustained  progress  and  intelligent,   rational   decision-making
    requires  the  diverse sources of information and differing perspectives
    made possible  by  spontaneous  orders.   Central  direction  constrains
    exploration,  diversity,  freedom,  and  dissenting opinion.  Respecting
    spontaneous order means  supporting  voluntaristic,  autonomy-maximizing
    institutions as opposed to rigidly hierarchical, authoritarian groupings
    with  their  bureaucratic  structure,  suppression  of  innovation   and
    diversity,  and  smothering  of  individual  incentives.   Understanding
    spontaneous orders makes us highly  suspicious  of  "authorities"  where
    these   are   imposed   on   us,  and  skeptical  of  coercive  leaders,
    unquestioning obedience, and unexamined traditions.

         Making effective use of  a  spontaneously  ordering  social  system
    requires us to be tolerant and peaceful, allowing others to pursue their
    lives as they see fit, just as we expect to be left to  follow  our  own
    paths.  We can best achieve mutual progress by interacting cooperatively
    and benevolently toward all who  do  not  threaten  our  lives,  and  by
    supporting  diversity of opinion and behavior.  Respecting diversity and
    disagreement requires us to maintain control  of  our  impulses  and  to
    uphold  high  standards  of  rational personal behavior.  Extropians are
    guided in their actions by studying the  fields  of  strategy,  decision
    theory  and  game  theory.   These  make  clear  to  us  the benefits of
    cooperation and encourage the long-term thinking appropriate to  persons
    seeking an unlimited lifespan.


    5. DYNAMIC OPTIMISM

         We  espouse  a  positive,   dynamic,   empowering   attitude.    To
    successfully  pursue our values and live our lives we must reject gloom,
    defeatism, and the common  cultural  focus  on  negatives.   Problems  -
    technical,  social,  psychological,  ecological - should be acknowledged
    but not allowed to dominate our thinking and our direction.  We  respond
    to   gloom   and   nay-saying   by  exploration  and  promotion  of  new
    possibilities.  Extropians hold to both short  and  long-term  optimism:
    In  the  short term we can cultivate our lives and enhance ourselves; in
    the long  term  the  positive  potentials  for  intelligent  beings  are
    virtually limitless.

         We question limits that others take for granted.  We  look  at  the
    acceleration  in scientific and technical knowledge, ascending standards
    of living, and social and moral evolution and project further  advances.
    More  researchers  today  than  in all past history strive to understand
    aging, control disease, upgrade computers, and develop biotechnology and
    nanotechnology.    Technological   and   social  evolution  continue  to
    accelerate, leading, some of us expect, to a Singularity - a future time
    when  many  of  the  rules  of life will so radically diverge from those
    familiar to us, and progress will  be  so  rapid,  that  we  cannot  now
    comprehend  that  time.   Extropians  will  maintain the acceleration of
    progress and encourage it in beneficial directions.

         Adopting dynamic  optimism  means  focusing  on  possibilities  and
    opportunities,  and being alert to solutions and potentialities.  And it
    means refusing to whine about what  cannot  be  avoided,  learning  from
    mistakes  rather  than  dwelling  on  them  in  a victimizing, punishing
    manner.  Dynamic optimism requires us to take the initiative, to jump up
    and  plough  into  our  difficulties  with  an attitude that says we can
    achieve our goals, rather than to sit  back  and  immerse  ourselves  in
    defeatist thinking.

         Dynamic optimism is not compatible with passive faith.  Faith in  a
    better  future  is confidence that an external force, whether God, State
    or society,  will  solve  our  problems.   Faith,  or  the  Polyanna/Dr.
    Pangloss variety of optimism, breeds passivity by encouraging the belief
    that progress will be effected by others.  Faith requires  a  determined
    belief  in  external  forces  and so encourages dogmatism and irrational
    rigidity of belief and behavior.  Dynamic optimism fosters activity  and
    intelligence,  telling  us that we are capable of improving life through
    our  own  efforts.   Opportunities  and  possibilities  are  everywhere,
    waiting for us to seize them and create new ones.  To achieve our goals,
    we must believe in ourselves, work hard,  and  be  open  to  revise  our
    strategies.

         Where others see difficulties, we  see  challenges.   Where  others
    give  up,  we  move forward.  Where others say enough is enough, we say:
    Forward!   Upward!   Outward!   We   espouse   personal,   social,   and
    technological  evolution into ever higher forms.  Extropians see too far
    and change too rapidly to feel future shock.  Let us advance the wave of
    evolutionary progress.


         Extropianism is  a  transhumanist  philosophy:   Like  humanism  it
    values  reason and sees no ground for believing in supernatural external
    forces controlling our  destiny.   But  transhumanism  goes  further  in
    calling  us  to  push  beyond  the  simply human stage of evolution.  As
    physicist Freeman Dyson said:  "Humanity looks to me like a  magnificent
    beginning but not the final word." Religion has traditionally provided a
    sense  of  meaning  and  purpose  in  life,  but  it   also   suppressed
    intelligence and stifled progress.  The Extropian philosophy provides an
    inspiring and uplifting meaning and  direction  to  our  individual  and
    social  existence,  while  remaining  flexible  and  firmly  founded  in
    science, reason, and the boundless search for improvement.