Godling’s Glossary

A Devilish Dictionary of
Travesties for Transhumans
by David Victor de Transend

© Copyright 1995 by David Krieger

Biosphere 2. Proof that one can do Big Science without involving Big Brother. A privately-funded boondoggle, for a change. The world’s most expensive weight-loss clinic. The Emerald City of the Greens: ‘Pay no attention to those big tanks of oxygen behind the curtain!’ An experiment successfully demonstrating that concrete soaks up oxygen: New Yorkers, take heed!

Clipper, n. A device for shearing sheep. Designed by those whose appetite for information is iNSAtiable.

Cryonic suspension. The second-worst thing that can happen to you. Cold comfort for cool characters. The penalty box in the war against entropy.

Earth. [From ME erthe, dirt.] The Third World. The planetary placenta of the universal uterus; the afterbirth of Homo celaestens (a cowering fetus that presently refuses to be born, despite growing labor pains).

Homeless, adj. Immune to the seizure of one’s home by the DEA or IRS.

Key escrow. A system of law enforcement in which you provide copies of your house keys to the police, mayor, and dog catcher, allowing them unrestricted entry to your house ‘just in case.’ In return, each of these worthies promises never, never to use the keys without a solemn nod from one of the others. The corresponding verb is escrew, as in ‘Anyone depositing their private keys with the government is escrewed.’

National Information Infrastructure. A desperately-needed government program to make the Internet as efficient, compassionate, and cost-effective as the Post Office, the Veteran’s Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Population bomb. A dud. The Ehrlich worm deserves the Bird. Prozac, n. A remedy for clinical depression. For mild depression, Amateurzac will do.

Transhuman, n. A human in a trance, mesmerized by a reflection in a magnifying glass. An ape with aspirations. One who feels that being meat is murder. Theme song: ‘Über the Rainbow’.

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HOW TO JOIN THE EXI VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

Extropy Institute sponsors, through the endeavor of ExI 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 a small charge to cover our expenses in providing these forums. After one month free on the List, you will be billed for the year at $8 (ExI members), $12 (Extropy subscribers), or $14 (others).

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

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

Some ExI-Essay papers are available by anonymous FTP from: ftp://ftp.merak.com/pub/ExI-Essay

Any questions should go to David McFadzean at dbm@merak.com.

Information of extropian interest is now available on the World-Wide Web at these two sites (among others):

http://www.acm.usl.edu/~dca6381/c2_mirror/extropy.html

This is David Arceneau’s mirror of a site maintained by Eric Watt Forste, here you can find frequently-answered-questions (FAQ) lists for extropians, cryonics, and life-extension; pointers to information about space exploration and development, libertarian politics, AI/robotics research, and neuroscience; a hypertext version of the Extropian Principles 2.5; and more.

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/dkrieger/exi.html

This expanding site, created by Dave Krieger, carries HTMLized back issues of Extropy, a hypertext version of The Extropian Principles, and more, including graphics of the magazine covers.

There are also five ‘local’ lists for announcements and discussions around the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and the United Kingdom. To join these lists, send messages to:

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

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

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

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

exi-uk-request@gnu.ai.mit.edu

EXTROPY #15 (7:2) 2nd-3rd Quarter 1995

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CONTRIBUTORS

See p.13 for bios of Future Forecast contributors.

Nancie Clark: Artist, Performer, earned graduate honors from Academia Belli Arte (Italy); videos: “Two Women In B&W” (Women In Video) and “T – And Counting” (U.S. Film Festival). Nancie has been a futurist and activist in transhumanism for over a decade, the optimism of which is clearly exhibited throughout her work. nancc@netcom.com

Eric Watt Forste is a Web engineer for Vivid Studios, a CD-ROM and online design firm in San Francisco, and formerly was Technical Support Manager for Neon Software, Inc. He edits the first of what is now many extropian World-Wide-Web sites, the extropians FAQ list, and (as assistant editor) the magazine Slippery When Wet. In what little spare time is left, he helps train volunteers for San Francisco Sex Information, and once was the Director of Operations for San Francisco Street Patrol. arkuat@pobox.com

Phil Fraering: Phil builds oilfield inspection equipment in Lafayette, Louisiana while contemplating returning to college and studying something besides physics. pgf@monet.siaa.com

Phil Goetz: Phil Goetz is writing a dissertation in artificial intelligence. Supposedly that makes him a computer scientist, but really, he is interested in the behavior and control of complex systems, including creatures, cultures, economies, and ecosystems. goetz@cs.buffalo.edu

Mark Grant has a Master’s Degree in Physics from Oxford, and is currently working as a software engineer, but is intending to become a technomad within five years. He is the author of Privtool, a free PGP-aware mail program for Sun workstations, and is working on a near-future SF RPG with extropian leanings. He owns far too many Italian cars, and maintains the (unofficial) Lancia WWW page. mark@unicorn.com WWW: http://www.c2.org/~mark/

Reilly Jones: Reilly has had a successful engineering management career in the steel industry. He is currently devoting his time to a life-long interest in the philosophy of technology. As an independent Coherency Agent, he is working to provide context and judgment amidst rapid technological change. 70544.1227@compuserve.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

Max More: President of Extropy Institute and co-founder of Extropy, Max is currently organizing the EXTRO² conference. While studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford University, Max founded the first British cryonics organization, MIZAR (now Alcor-UK). He is completing his Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy at the University of Southern California. more@usc.edu more@extropy.org

Michael C. Price: BSc and MSc in Theoretical Physics from Imperial College, London. Specialist interests in cosmology and quantum field theory. Software engineer by profession. Director of Alcor UK by necessity. Short-term ambition: immortality. Long-term goal: win a chess championship. price@demon.co.uk

Ray Sahelian, M.D. is a physician certified by the American Board of Family Practice. He obtained a Batchelor of Science degree in nutrition at Drexel University in Pennsylvania and completed his doctoral training at Thomas Jefferson Medical School. In addition to a medical practice, Dr. Sahelian is a frequent contributor to health magazines and has made numerous appearances on radio and television to discuss his personal experiences with melatonin and the current research now being conducted on this interesting health supplement. He is the author of Be Happier Starting Now. dr.ray@ix.netcom.com

Lawrence H. White: Associate professor of economics at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Free Banking in Britain (Cambridge University Press) and Competition and Currency (New York University Press). His article “How Would the Invisible Hand Handle Money?” (co-authored with George Selgin) appeared in the December 1994 issue of the Journal of Economic Literature. lwhite@rigel.econ.uga.edu

Mark Wolf: Mark J. P. Wolf is a Ph.D. Candidate who has recently finished a dissertation on digital technology’s effect on art, communication, and cognition. He enjoys recreational mathematics, game design, and writing. mwolf@scf.usc.edu

Production information

Extropy#15 was produced on a Gateway 486 DX2/50 with 8Mb of RAM, 630Mb hard disk, 17” NEC 5FG monitor powered by a #9GXE video accelerator with 2Mb of video memory, using Pagemaker 5.0 for Windows, Word for Windows 6.0, Pixar Typestry 1.0, and Aldus Freehand 4.0. Scanned images were input by a Microtek Scanmaker IISP, and processed with Photoshop 3.0. The proofs were printed at 600dpi on an HP Laserjet 4 with 6Mb of RAM, and final output at 2,400dpi on on Agfa typesetter. PageMaker files were sent to the printer on an 88Mb SyQuest cartridge. Complete chaos avoided with the help of Lotus Organizer 1.0. Layout by Max More with Nancie Clark.

This issue was printed by Ripon Community Printers, Ripon, WI. Print run: approx. 4,500

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EXTROPY #15 (7:2) 2nd-3rd Quarter 1995