CONTENTS

Editorial	by Tom W. Bell	3
Forum	by various contributors	4
Love as a Contractual Relation	by Tom W. Bell	9
Love as a Sharing of Values	by Max T. O’Connor	14
Agapeic Love	by Rob Michels	17
Sexual Information	by Tom W. Bell	22
Psychedelics and Mind Expansion	by Max T. O’Connor	27

Illustrations:

Front cover: “Yin Yang Kiss,” by Tom W. Bell, for D. Back cover: “Love Loef,” by Tom W. Bell, for D.

EDITORIAL

Love, sex, and drugs? At first glance, these topics might not seem to have a lot to do with this magazine’s namesake: extropy. Actually, though, each of these subjects opens a new front in our battle against entropy.

You could very well call this issue of Extropy “The Love Issue,” since three of its articles address the subject. Why this emphasis? Well, for one thing, love tells us a lot about the interactions of those most complex of information processing systems: people. Our interest in love isn’t purely academic, however. Unlike some of our more technical subjects, love interests everyone. And well it should; it’s not only fun to talk about love, it’s important. Extropians battle entropy because they value life, and love makes life worth living.

In the closely related article, titled “Sexual Information,” I offer a look at the whys and hows of the sexual exchange of information. I set out to answer the question, “Why is sex so great?” and end up discovering that sex can serve as one of our most powerful means of advancing extropy. Max

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O’Connor takes a serious look at another somewhat taboo subject in his article ‘Psychedelics and Mind Expansion,’ where he reviews some of the effects and uses of LSD-25. Max is a brave man: in an age when the police state threatens to crush all opposition in its ‘War on (People Who Choose to Use) Drugs,’ he fearlessly admits and advocates the use of psychoreactive chemicals.

In addition to these pieces on love, sex, and drugs, we now open Extropy with an expanded ‘Forum’ section, where you readers can join us in a dialogue about extropy. We hope that you’ll continue to offer us input; as the name implies, we intend ‘Forum’ to present a meeting of minds.

Coming up in the next few issues: an article on the Singularity, by Mark E. Potts; something about neural nets, by Simon Levy; ‘In Praise of Satan,’ ‘Death: the Ultimate Bummer,’ and ‘Deep Anarchy’ by Max; ‘Total Anarchy,’ and ‘The Aesthetics of Information Transmission,’ by Tom; and articles on the cold fusion breakthrough, advances in micro- and nanotechnology, mind machines, space colonization, cyberpunk science fiction, new theories of personal identity and survival, currently available means of boosting your memory and learning abilities, and new perspectives on handling friendships and romantic relationships, with alternatives to conventional marriage.

Please indulge your urges to send us material on any extropian topic. We welcome articles on the following subjects, among others: artificial intelligence; cognitive science and neuroscience advances and possibilities; intelligence increase technologies; life extension, cryonics; biostasis, and immortalism in general; nanotechnology; hypermedia; spontaneous orders; space colonization; libertarian economics and politics; reviews of science fiction; intelligent use of psychochemicals; extropian self-improvement psychology; mind-fucking and weirdness; extropic moral and amoral theories; exciting developments in science and technology; memetics; and aesthetics.

Those of you who pay attention to such things will note that Max and I have adopted new titles. Previously we were both ‘Co-editors.’ Now I’ve become Extropy’s Editor, while Max has become its Assistant Editor. On the other hand, in the campus organization Trojans for Radical Individualism that Max and I used to jointly coordinate, he has assumed the role of Primary Coordinator, while I’ve been relegated to mere Coordinator. This shift of responsibilities allows us to concentrate on our specialties while still permitting us to pool out talents.

Last, but far from least, thanks to Claustrophobia for all its help.

Tom W. Bell

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