Does anyone still believe that human intelligence can solve all problems? The Extropians do. The '90s version of "Isn't the future great?" is sorting itself into a minor movement revolving around the term extropy. Extropy is the opposite of dissipative entropy. Extropians preach "boundless expansion" - there are no limits to social and technological progress, and "self-transformation" - there are no limits to what a person can do by taking hold of his or her own destiny. Author Ayn Rand is mentioned a lot.
The absolutely fun part of extropianism is that it has become a light attracting some of the wildest and wooliest idea-bugs of future-tech. All the concepts that seem impossible and cranky to official science receive passionate attention here. Who but Extropians would take seriously any of the following: time travel, nanotechnology, longevity, space colonies, gene therapy, and cryonics?
The theme here: Anything is possible. The future might be artificial life, underwater cities, post-human cyborgs, or global free-market trade. All are discussed in great technical detail in the dense journal Extropy and via a prolific email list. Extropians give as much thought to engineering the social support as the technical.
The unrelenting optimism of the Extropians drives some folks crazy, while others consider the movement to be just the noise of an assortment of anarcho-libertarian nuts. But if you are bored with the Official Future of the mainstream press, or the Politically Correct Future of the alternative press, you can get your eyebrows singed reading the "transhuman" future of the Extropian press.
Extropy, $30 for six issues, +1-213-484-6383, (extropians@gnu.ai.mit.edu).
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