X-Message-Number: 1104
Date: 06 Aug 92 01:08:06 EDT
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Various
 
Re the nanodebate between Perry M. and Keith L: I am only 
just beginning to study and understand the Extropian mindset, 
but am I right in thinking that one of its dominant 
characteristics is impatience? Impatience with limitations, 
for a start; plus impatience with the slow pace of change, 
with conservatism generally, with the imperfections of human 
biology, and of course impatience caused by the sense that 
time is running out. I feel these forms of impatience myself 
to some extent, but I see them write large on the face of 
Extropianism. And as a result, perhaps the impatience 
sometimes spills over onto *other people*, especially people 
who place inconvenient little stumbling blocks on the path to 
human transcendence. Is that the offense committed by Keith 
L, which caused such a surprisingly terse, dismissive 
response from Perry M? If so, I can't help feeling that the 
optimism advocated by Extropianism is akin to wishful 
thinking, because there is no way around the endless boring 
practical inconvenient annoying detail of MAKING THINGS WORK. 
When our brains are encoded in silicon, or our blood is full 
of nanomachines (which can't be soon enough for me!), I hope 
no one thinks there will be less need for engineers such as 
Keith. Just the opposite; there will be ten times as many 
things to go wrong. Fortunately, we may hope that they are 
easier to fix, with the right tools for the job. But that 
very pertinent matter seemed to be the focus of Keith's 
posting. 

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