EXTROPY INSTITUTE

Why an Extropy Institute?

Fundamentally, two related reasons led us to form Extropy Institute (ExI) out of the persons and forces attracted by the intellectual gravitation of Extropy magazine. The first objective was to draw together people of shared values and goals, to act as focal point – a nexus – to facilitate their interaction, mutual aid, and exchange of information. I saw ExI as the nucleating agent which would crystallize a fresh, dynamic culture to sustain those who find themselves alienated from the surrounding society’s bizarre religious, political, and intellectual practices, institutions, and beliefs.

I defined the Extropian Principles of Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, and Spontaneous Order to give shape to the vision of life I shared with Tom Morrow, co-founder of Extropy. The Extropian culture grows rapidly as many others encounter a life-stance which explicitly interrelates their own values and goals, including political individualism and voluntarism, personal responsibility, rationality, skepticism, enthusiasm for technology, a desire for perpetual self-improvement, and an urge to overcome historical, cultural, biological, genetic, neurological, and spatial limits, including many that most humans rarely think to question, such as the process of aging and dying.

The second, closely related purpose of ExI, is educational. By gathering and focusing the energies of transhumanists all over this planet, we seek to shift cultural attitudes in an extropic direction, both by persuasion and by personal example. We will encourage the more traditional, uncritical, and timid members of our species to doubt both the desirability and inevitability of death and taxes, to outgrow irrationalist and mystical religions, and to challenge every limit to our potential. ExI promulgates a philosophy of life appropriate for rational persons rushing headlong into a future of boundless possibility, where many of the rules of existence will be changed.

ExI Membership

Following incorporation in May 1992, ExI began to offer memberships in June 1992, and has been growing strongly since. Members receive Extropy: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought – the central source of extensive intellectual

exploration. In addition, members receive the bi-monthly newsletter, Exponent (edited by Simon! D. Levy). Exponent provides regular news updates, shorter writings, book, movie, and software reviews of Extropian interest, reports on crucial advances in science, and provides information on meetings and electronic gathering places.

ExI members receive discounts, currently on T-shirts and audio tapes, and later on books, software, and events.

We are in the early information gathering stages of organizing the first International Extropy Institute Conference, likely to be held in 1994. The conference will draw together top-flight brains in many fields for a unique and intense round of lectures, panel discussions, and social events.

The Extropian network grows as individuals organize local meetings, both social and purposive. The first gatherings in Los Angeles in 1991, have been followed by meetings in New York, San Francisco, and Boston.

Members and non-members alike can dive into prolific discussions across the Internet (see back cover for details). The main Extropians list, managed by Harry Shapiro, is a torrent of fascinating discussion, its overwhelming volume now tamed by the addition of a digest version, thanks to Ray Cromwell. There are several email lists for local organization, and an essay list for extensive original essays. Thanks to the ease of communication granted by a modem and the Internet, a flourishing Extropian virtual community has arisen over the past 17 months since ExI member Perry Metzger originally created the Extropians list.

Further information on our other proposed projects can be found in the last issue of Extropy. The ambitious roster of

Extropy Institute

projects found there should be understood as a prospectus for our future, not a description of our current status. Extropy Institute is yet a newborn, without wealthy parents. Yet ExI grows and develops vigorously. Join us, and fly upward and outward with us as we take charge and create the future we seek to inhabit.

Max More, Executive Director, ExI

Ten Books

The dauntingly long list of books following the Extropian Principles 2.0 (see Extropy #9) may deter some from even starting to read these mind-expanding works. So, acting on a suggestion by Mark Plus, here are the ten books that I believe serve jointly to explain much of the Extropian conception of self and universe, in the past, present, and probable future.

Paul M. Churchland, Matter and Consciousness.

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.

K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation.

David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom.

Hans Moravec, Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence.

Ed Regis, Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition.

Julian L. Simon, The Ultimate Resource.

Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising.

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.

Marc Stiegler, The Gentle Seduction.

Extropy Institute Directors:

Max More, Executive Director and CEO, Editor Extropy. more@usc.edu

Tom Morrow, Associate Executive Director. twb3@midway.uchicago.edu

Simon! D. Levy, Editor, Exponent. levy@yalehask.bitnet

David Krieger. dkrieger@netcom.com

Russell E. Whitaker. whitaker@eternity.demon.co.uk

Ralph Whelan. alcor@cup.portal.com [not a private address]

EXTROPY #10 Winter/Spring 1993

38

BACK ISSUES

BACK ISSUE PRICES:

#1, 2, 4, 5, 6: $4 each; #7, 8, 9: $4.50 each. Available from:

EXTROPY INSTITUTE, P.O. Box 57306, Los Angeles, CA 90057-0306. Tel/fax: 213-484-6383.

#9. Vol.4 No.1 (Summer 1992):

The Extropian Principles, 2.0, by Max More; Extropy Institute Launches, by Max More; Persons, Programs, and Uploading Consciousness, by David Ross; Nanotechnology and Faith, by J. Storrs Hall; The Making of a Small World (fiction), by R. Michael Perry; Genetic Algorithms, by Simon! D. Levy; Time Travel and Computing, by Hans Moravec; Futique Neologisms 3; Exercise and Longevity, by Fran Finney; The Transhuman Taste (Reviews): The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, The Blind Watchmaker, The Ultimate Resource, Population Matters, The Resourceful Earth, Bionomics

#8 Vol.3 No.2 (Winter 1991-92):

Idea Futures: Encouraging an Honest Consensus, by Robin Hanson; Dynamic Optimism, by Max More; Neurocomputing 5: Artificial Life, by Simon! D. Levy; Futique Neologisms (futurist lexicon); Extropia: A Home for Our Hopes, by Tom Morrow; Human-Transhuman-Posthuman, by Max More; Reviews of: Stiegler’s David’s Sling, Drexler’s Unbounding the Future, Platt’s The Silicon Man; News of scientific advances and movement news; Reviews of zines.

#7 Vol.3 No.1 (Spring 1991):

A Memetic Approach to ‘Selling’ Cryonics, H. Keith Henson & Arel Lucas; Privately Produced Law, Tom Morrow; Order Without Orderers, Max More; Futique Neologisms; Neurocomputing 4: Self-Organization

zation in Artificial Neural Networks, by Simon! D. Levy; Forum on Transhumanism; Reviews of Smart Pills, Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman, Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition; and more…

#6 (Summer 1990):

Transhumanism: Towards a Futurist Philosophy, by Max More; The Thermodynamics of Death, Michael C. Price; The Opening of the Transhuman Mind, by Mark Plus; The Extropian Principles, by Max More; Neurocomputing Part 3, by Simon! D. Levy; Forum on Arch-Anarchy and Deep Anarchy; Reviews: Order Out of Chaos, The Emperor’s New Mind, A Neurocomputational Perspective, Loompanics Greatest Hits, The Machinery of Freedom; Extropian Resources, and more.

#5 (Winter 1990):

Forum: Art and Communication; Leaping the Abyss, by Gregory Benford; Arch-Anarchy, by A; Deep Anarchy, by Max O’Connor; I am a Child, by Fred Chamberlain; Perceptrons (Neurocomputing 2), by Simon D. Levy; On Competition and Species Loss, by Max O’Connor; A Review of Intoxication, by Rob Michels; Intelligence at Work, by Max O’Connor and Simon D. Levy; Extropian Resources, by Max O’Connor and Tom W. Bell; The Extropian Declaration, by Tom W. Bell and Max O’Connor; Our Enemy, ‘The State,’ by Max O’Connor and Tom W. Bell

#4 (Summer 1989):

Forum; In Praise of the Devil, by Max O’Connor; Neurocomputing, by Simon D. Levy; Why Monogamy? by Tom. W. Bell; What’s Wrong With Death? by Max O’Connor; Reviews: Are You a Transhuman? Postscript to ‘Morality or Reality’ by Max O’Connor; Efficient Aesthetics, by Tom. W. Bell; Intelligence at Work: Advances in Science by Max O’Connor

#2 (Winter 1989):

Review of Mind Children, by Max O’Connor; Darwin’s Difficulty, by H. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas; A Truly Instant Breakfast, by Steven B. Harris M.D.; Wisdomism, by Tom W. Bell; Nanotechnology News, by Max O’Connor; Weirdness Watch, by Mark E. Potts

#1 (Fall 1988):

A brief overview of extropian philosophy and an introduction to some of the topics we plan to address: AI, Intelligence Increase Technologies, Immortalism, Nanotechnology, Spontaneous Orders, Psychochemicals, Extropic Psychology, Morality, Mindfucking, Space Colonization, Libertarian Economics and Politics, Memetics, and Aesthetics; ‘Morality or Reality,’ by Max O’Connor.

#3 (Spring 1989) is out of print.

P I C H A R D O

Adolpho S. Pichardo Associates, Ltd. A Limited Partnership Chartered for Fiduciary Services

SERVING AS TRUSTEES FOR REANIMATION TRUSTS SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR SAFEGUARDING YOUR PROPERTY DURING THE PERIOD OF YOUR CRYONIC SUSPENSION

3850 Galloway Road, Suite 306, Miami, FL 33165 (305) 551-0991 FAX: (305) 551-3051

39

EXTROPY #10 Winter/Spring 1993