To: The Universe

From: Tom W. Bell and Max T. O’Connor---

THE EXTROPIAN DECLARATION

Extropians: Forward! Upward! Outward! Into the future!

We who want to live, we who want freedom, we who want to learn: We challenge the forces of entropy!

We deny all limitations on our boundless wills: Ignorance, State, Religion and Death.

We want more intelligence, more power, more liberty. We want more life!

More! More!! More!!!

More… about extropy:

Why are we ‘extropians’? Because we want to survive and prosper in our often hostile universe. As scientists describe it; our universe naturally tends toward entropy. It is entropy that breaks down our cars, shorts out our computers, and withers our flesh. Entropy is the supreme enemy of human hope.

Extropians hold a consistently anti-entropy point of view. What does ‘extropy,’ mean? Look to its etymology: ‘Entropy’ comes from the Greek ‘en’, or ‘in’, plus ‘trepein’, or ‘change’. ‘Extropy’, on the other hand, comes from ‘ex’, or ‘out’, and ‘trepein’. Thus while entropy decreases order, usable energy, and information, extropy increases all three of these goods, goods that our well-being demands. In a universe threatening to drown us in a rising tide of disorder, extropy offers us safe passage to higher ground.

Prepare for the future

It’s not going to go away! After wandering along at a slow pace for centuries, our world has started to enter a period of change that will far outpace historical standards. The changes occurring in the twentieth century dwarf those of any previous thousand years, but they only hint at what the future holds. We face a turning point in history - a time when artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, physical immortality and other factors promise to radically transform virtually every aspect of our existence. We are each of us responsible for preparing ourselves for that future, and for helping others to understand the coming age.

Ready… Set…

We must radically revise our present conceptual frameworks, values, and expectations if we are to both survive and prosper in the coming age. Extropians view the future optimistically. Our optimism is both a rational expectation based on the facts and a nonrational (but not irrational) attitude towards the future. Aiming high will help us reach our goals. Optimism can be self-fulfilling! We expect great things from the future because we foresee incredible opportunity, diversity, and beauty. We will have material abundance beyond our dreams, a pollution-free environment, fantastic intelligence, the ability to create new worlds, and other wonders yet untold. We look forward to rationally using these opportunities, and enjoying ourselves fully in doing so.

Let’s Go!

EXTROPY

#5 - Winter Issue, 1990

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