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. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=1104