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Issue: EXTROPY #12 · First Quarter 1994
Author: The Editors
Pages: 45–46 · 2 scanned pages

Contributors

CONTRIBUTORS

Nanc Clark: Nanc received her Master of Fine Arts at the Accademie de Belle Arti in Italy. She seeks ways of applying artistic vision to futurist ideas.

Jamie Dinkelacker: Dr. Jamie Dinkelacker focuses on information services, organizational development, communication technologies, and the marketing of related innovations. He holds a Ph.D. in communication research from Michigan State University, and an MS in communication research and a BS in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He serves on the Board of Advisors of both Foresight Institute and Extropy Institute. jamie@netcom.com

Eric Drexler: Eric Drexler extracted a Ph.D. in Molecular Nanotechnology from M.I.T. He wrote Engines of Creation (Doubleday), co-authored Unbounding the Future (Morrow), and Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation (Wiley Interscience) — named the outstanding computer science book of 1992 by the Association of American Publishers. He began studies of molecular nanotechnology in 1977. drexler@netcom.com

Bill Eichman: Bill Eichman, 37, is an independent scholar, philosopher, author, and educator, and the owner of several businesses including a building contracting company, a computer consulting firm, an Internet BBS, and a Management company. One of his special interests is the building of community structures that support self-realizing and self-developing humans. He lives near Penn State University in central PA on a small country homestead with his beloved partner Marisa. wce@hogbbs.scol.pa.us

Hal Finney: Hal received a BS in Engineering from Caltech. He developed several commercial video games for Mattel, then went on to head the Operating Systems Group at Ametek, a major manufacturer of parallel computers. He co-developed Neuralyst, a commercial neural-network simulation package. Hal played a major part in the development of version 2.0 of Phil Zimmermann’s encryption program, PGP. hal@alumni.caltech.edu

Robin Hanson: Robin Hanson got an M.S. Physics, and M.A. in the Conceptual Foundations of Science from U. Chicago in 1984. In 1993, Robin became a grad student in social science at Caltech. In between, Robin researched artificial intelligence and Bayesian statistics for NASA, and for himself researched alternative institutions for hypertext publishing, and for buying research, health care, law enforcement, and much more. hanson@hss.caltech.edu

Harry S. Hawk: Manager of Computer Services for Warwick, Baker, & Fiori Advertising. He holds a masters degree in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University. He is Electronic Communications Officer for Extropy Institute and manages the Internet-based Extropians e-mail list. habs@panix.com

David Krieger: Dave Krieger is Director of Publications for Agorics, Inc., a platform software and consulting firm in Silicon Valley. He is Extropy’s Science Editor, an Extropy Institute director, and a former Technical Consultant to Star Trek: The Next Generation. dkrieger@netcom.com

Simon! D. Levy: Simon! D. Levy is an Exl Director and the editor of Exl’s newsletter Exponent. He holds a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Connecticut and earns his living writing Macintosh and DECwindows Motif applications at Haskins Laboratories, in New Haven, CT. Simon!‘s research interests include neural networks, genetic algorithms, and artificial life. He has written articles about these topics for this magazine. He plans to return to graduate school next fall, to work on a Ph.D. dissertation investigating spontaneous linguistic order in a synthetic environment. levy@yalehask.bitnet

Mark Miller: At Datapoint Mark built the first commercial distributed windows system. He was co-architech of the Xanadu distributed hypermedia server. At Xerox PARC, Mark co-authored (with Eric Drexler) the agoric open-systems papers on market-based computation and market-oriented programming. Currently he is co-director of the Agorics Project at GMU, Chief Technical Officer of Agoric Enterprises, Inc. in Fairfax, VA, and a founder of Agorics, Inc. in Los Altos, CA. mmiller@netcom.com

Max More: Editor and co-founder of Extropy and President of Extropy Institute, Max received his BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from St. Anne’s College, Oxford University in 1987, and now is writing his Ph.D. dissertation on The Diachronic Self: Identity, Continuity, and Transformation at the Philosophy Department, USC. more@extropy.org

T.O. Morrow: Tom is Vice President of Extropy Institute, and Law and Politics Editor of Extropy. He holds a Masters degree in Philosophy from USC, and a law degree from the University of Chicago. Tom invented the word “extropy,” and co-founded the magazine of the same name, in 1988. He currently practices law deep within the belly of the Beast. t0morrow@aol.com

Nick Szabo: Nick Szabo graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. He has worked at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, IBM, and Sequent Computer, and currently is a software consultant and writer. szabo@netcom.com

Ralph Whelan: Vice President of Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Editor of Cryonics magazine, and a director of Extropy Institute. His main interest is music, which he views as a tremendously precise and complex form of thought/communication. His biggest distraction is computer art/animation. ralph@alcor.org

47

EXTROPY #12 (6:1) First quarter 1994

Exl Audio Tapes, Books, T-Shirt

Everything is Getting Better and Better – I’ll Bet On It!

by Julian Simon.

Economist Julian Simon uses hard data to counter prevailing gloomy beliefs about the current state of the world and its direction. Practically all measures of human well-being substantiate the Extropian’s dynamically optimistic views: Life does tend to improve, though only through the efforts and applied intelligence of free persons. This tape makes an effective introduction to Simon’s ideas, and, lent out to your pessimistic friends, will serve as a valuable intellectual catalyst.

$10.95 (Members $9.95) EC1 (1-hour audio)

Bionomics On Trial: A Discussion With Michael Rothschild

Rothschild outlines the main contentions of his book Bionomics: Economy As Ecosystem, and responds to audience questions. Topics discussed include electronic ecosystems; how bionomics effectively draws ‘liberals’ into support for free markets; the relation between Austrian/process economics and bionomics; the role of government; how far the economy as ecosystem analogy can be pushed.

$12.95 (Members: $11.50) EC2 (80 minutes audio)

Postage:

$1 per tape. Overseas orders: Surface mail – $1.50 first tape, $1.25 each additional tape. Contact Exl for airmail rates.

BOOKS AVAILABLE (domestic postage included):

Maureen Caudill, In Our Own Image: Building An Artificial Person $24.95

K. Eric Drexler, Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation $27.95

Alan Lakein, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life $5.95

Marc Steigler, The Gentle Seduction $4.70

Gelernter, Mirror Worlds $24.95

Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep $7.49

Forward! Upward! Outward! Into your T-Shirt!

Strike terror into the hearts of gloomy pessimists, life-haters, and statists!

Proudly display your transhumanist colors! Yes, Extropy T-shirts are once again available, currently only in men’s extra-Large. These shirts, in blue, feature the five-spiral Extropy logo in black and gold up front, and the motto “Forward! Upward! Outward! Into the Future!” on the back.

The cost is $16 per shirt ($14 for Exl members).

Check or money order in US dollars drawn on a US bank, payable to “Extropy Institute.” Mail your order to: Extropy Institute, Dept. S, 11860 Magnolia Avenue, Suite R, Riverside, CA 92503.

How to Join the Exl Virtual Community

Extropy Institute sponsors, through the endeavor of Exl Electronic Communications Officer Harry S. Hawk, a number of electronic fora for sharing libertarian, life-extensionist, pro-technology and other Extropian ideas with bright, like-minded individuals around the globe.

The most popular service is the Extropians e-mail list, which boils over with lively discussion and debate on numerous topics. To join, send a request to:

extropians-request@extropy.org

When sending your add request, indicate whether you want real time or digest mode. (If unsure, try the digest mode first!) The Extropians list is using the most advanced information-filtering software, allowing you to select which messages (topic, author, etc.) you receive and how you receive them.

There is also an Extropian conference on the Well, one of the longest-running professionally run BBS systems. On the Well, send mail to habs.

Another service is the Exl Essay list, for posting longer, more carefully prepared electronic manuscripts. To get on this list, send a message to:

exl-essay-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

Those Exl-Essay papers containing explicit notices granting permission for redistribution are available by anonymous FTP at lynx.cs.wisc.edu (IP address 128.105.2.216). A list of available essays along with their file names is in the file pub/Exl-Essay/INDEX. Any questions should go to Derek Zahn at derek@cs.wisc.edu.

There are also four “local” lists for announcements and discussions around the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Los Angeles, and New York. To join these lists, send messages to:

exl-bay-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

exl-bos-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

exl-la-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

exl-nyc-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

VIEW ORIGINAL SCAN (2 pages)
Extropy #12, page 45 (original scan)Extropy #12, page 46 (original scan)