3. PRACTICAL OPTIMISM
Extropians espouse a positive, dynamic, empowering attitude. We seek to realize our ideals in this world, today and tomorrow. Rather than enduring an unfulfilling life sustained by fantasies of another life (whether in daydreams or in an "afterlife"), we direct our energies enthusiastically into moving toward our ever-evolving vision.
Living vigorously, effectively, and joyfully, requires dismissing gloom, defeatism, and negativism. We acknowledge problems, whether technical, social, psychological, or ecological, but we do not allow them to dominate our thinking and our direction. We respond to gloom and defeatism by exploring and exploiting new possibilities. Extropians hold an optimistic view of the future, foreseeing potent antidotes to many ancient human ailments, requiring only that we take charge and create that future. Practical optimism disallows passively waiting and wishing for tomorrow; it propels us exuberantly into immediate activity, confidently confronting todayÂ’s challenges while generating more potent solutions for our future. We take personal responsibility by taking charge and creating the conditions for success.
We question limits others take for granted. Observing accelerating scientific and technical learning, ascending standards of living, and evolving social and moral practices, we project and encourage continuing progress. Today there are more researchers studying aging, medicine, computers, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other enabling disciplines than in all of history. Technological and social development continue to accelerate. Extropians strive to maintain the pace of progress by encouraging support for crucial research, and pioneering the implementation of its results. We maintain a constructive skepticism to the limiting beliefs held by our associates, our society, and ourselves. We see past current obstacles by retaining a fundamental creative openness to possibilities.
Adopting practical optimism means focusing on possibilities and opportunities, being alert to solutions and potentialities. It means refusing to whine about what cannot be avoided, learning from mistakes rather than dwelling on them in a victimizing, punishing, guilt-ridden manner. We prefer to be for rather than against, to create solutions rather than to protest against what exists. Our optimism is also realism in that we take the world as it is and do not complain that life is not fair. Practical optimism requires us to take the initiative, to jump up and plow into our difficulties, our actions declaring that we can achieve our goals, rather than sitting back and submerging ourselves in defeatist thinking.
Our actions and words embody practical optimism, inspiring others to excel. We are responsible for taking the initiative in spreading this invigorating optimism; sustaining and strengthening our own dynamism is more easily achieved in a mutually reinforcing environment. We stimulate optimism in others by communicating our extropian ideas and by living our ideals.
Practical optimism and passive faith are incompatible. Practical optimism means critical optimism. Faith in a better future is confidence that an external force, whether God, State, or even extraterrestrials, will solve our problems. Faith breeds passivity by promising progress as a gift bestowed on us by superior forces. But, in return for the gift, faith requires a fixed belief in and supplication to external forces, thereby creating dogmatic beliefs and irrational behavior. Practical optimism fosters initiative and intelligence, assuring us that we are capable of improving life through our own efforts. Opportunities and possibilities are everywhere, calling to us to seize them and to build upon them. Attaining our goals requires that we believe in ourselves, work diligently, and be willing to revise our strategies.
Where others see difficulties, we see challenges. Where others give up, we move forward. Where others say enough is enough, we say Forward! Upward! Outward! We espouse personal, social, and technological evolution into ever better forms. Rather than shrinking from future shock, Extropians continue to advance the wave of evolutionary progress.
Extropians espouse a positive, dynamic, empowering attitude. We seek to realize our ideals in this world, today and tomorrow. Rather than enduring an unfulfilling life sustained by fantasies of another life (whether in daydreams or in an "afterlife"), we direct our energies enthusiastically into moving toward our ever-evolving vision.
Living vigorously, effectively, and joyfully, requires dismissing gloom, defeatism, and negativism. We acknowledge problems, whether technical, social, psychological, or ecological, but we do not allow them to dominate our thinking and our direction. We respond to gloom and defeatism by exploring and exploiting new possibilities. Extropians hold an optimistic view of the future, foreseeing potent antidotes to many ancient human ailments, requiring only that we take charge and create that future. Practical optimism disallows passively waiting and wishing for tomorrow; it propels us exuberantly into immediate activity, confidently confronting todayÂ’s challenges while generating more potent solutions for our future. We take personal responsibility by taking charge and creating the conditions for success.
We question limits others take for granted. Observing accelerating scientific and technical learning, ascending standards of living, and evolving social and moral practices, we project and encourage continuing progress. Today there are more researchers studying aging, medicine, computers, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other enabling disciplines than in all of history. Technological and social development continue to accelerate. Extropians strive to maintain the pace of progress by encouraging support for crucial research, and pioneering the implementation of its results. We maintain a constructive skepticism to the limiting beliefs held by our associates, our society, and ourselves. We see past current obstacles by retaining a fundamental creative openness to possibilities.
Adopting practical optimism means focusing on possibilities and opportunities, being alert to solutions and potentialities. It means refusing to whine about what cannot be avoided, learning from mistakes rather than dwelling on them in a victimizing, punishing, guilt-ridden manner. We prefer to be for rather than against, to create solutions rather than to protest against what exists. Our optimism is also realism in that we take the world as it is and do not complain that life is not fair. Practical optimism requires us to take the initiative, to jump up and plow into our difficulties, our actions declaring that we can achieve our goals, rather than sitting back and submerging ourselves in defeatist thinking.
Our actions and words embody practical optimism, inspiring others to excel. We are responsible for taking the initiative in spreading this invigorating optimism; sustaining and strengthening our own dynamism is more easily achieved in a mutually reinforcing environment. We stimulate optimism in others by communicating our extropian ideas and by living our ideals.
Practical optimism and passive faith are incompatible. Practical optimism means critical optimism. Faith in a better future is confidence that an external force, whether God, State, or even extraterrestrials, will solve our problems. Faith breeds passivity by promising progress as a gift bestowed on us by superior forces. But, in return for the gift, faith requires a fixed belief in and supplication to external forces, thereby creating dogmatic beliefs and irrational behavior. Practical optimism fosters initiative and intelligence, assuring us that we are capable of improving life through our own efforts. Opportunities and possibilities are everywhere, calling to us to seize them and to build upon them. Attaining our goals requires that we believe in ourselves, work diligently, and be willing to revise our strategies.
Where others see difficulties, we see challenges. Where others give up, we move forward. Where others say enough is enough, we say Forward! Upward! Outward! We espouse personal, social, and technological evolution into ever better forms. Rather than shrinking from future shock, Extropians continue to advance the wave of evolutionary progress.
4. INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY
Extropians affirm the necessity and desirability of science and technology. We use practical methods to advance our goals of expanded intelligence, superior physical abilities, psychological refinement, social advance, and indefinite life spans. We prefer science to mysticism, and technology to prayer. We regard science and technology as indispensable means to the achievement of our most noble values, ideals, and visions and to our further evolution. We seek to foster these disciplined forms of intelligence, and to direct them toward eradicating the barriers to our extropian objectives, radically transforming both the internal and external conditions of existence.
Technology is a natural extension and expression of human intellect and will, of creativity, curiosity, and imagination. We foresee and encourage the development of ever more flexible, smart, responsive technology. We will co-evolve with the products of our minds, integrating with them, finally integrating our intelligent technology into ourselves in a posthuman synthesis, amplifying our abilities and extending our freedom.
Profound technological innovation excites rather than frightens us. We welcome constructive change, expanding our horizons, exploring new territory boldly and inventively. We favor careful and cautious development of powerful technologies, but will neither stifle evolutionary advancement nor cringe before the unfamiliar. We regard timidity and stagnation as unworthy of us. Extropians therefore favor surging ahead — riding the waves of future shock — rather than stagnating or reverting to primitivism. Intelligent use of biotechnology and nanotechnology and the opening of new frontiers in space, can remove resource constraints and discharge environmental pressures.
We favor technologies for the beneficial results they can bring. We do not pursue technological advance for its own sake. Intelligent Technology means not only using technology to amplify our abilities, but also designing tools and technologies that suit us rather than compelling us to conform to their workings.
We see the coming years and decades as a time of enormous changes, changes that will vastly expand our opportunities and abilities, transforming our lives for the better. This technological transformation will be accelerated by genetic engineering, life extending biosciences, intelligence intensifiers, smarter interfaces to swifter computers, neural-computer integration, worldwide data networks, virtual reality, intelligent agents, swift electronic communications, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, neural networks, artificial life, off-planet migration, and molecular nanotechnology.
Extropians affirm the necessity and desirability of science and technology. We use practical methods to advance our goals of expanded intelligence, superior physical abilities, psychological refinement, social advance, and indefinite life spans. We prefer science to mysticism, and technology to prayer. We regard science and technology as indispensable means to the achievement of our most noble values, ideals, and visions and to our further evolution. We seek to foster these disciplined forms of intelligence, and to direct them toward eradicating the barriers to our extropian objectives, radically transforming both the internal and external conditions of existence.
Technology is a natural extension and expression of human intellect and will, of creativity, curiosity, and imagination. We foresee and encourage the development of ever more flexible, smart, responsive technology. We will co-evolve with the products of our minds, integrating with them, finally integrating our intelligent technology into ourselves in a posthuman synthesis, amplifying our abilities and extending our freedom.
Profound technological innovation excites rather than frightens us. We welcome constructive change, expanding our horizons, exploring new territory boldly and inventively. We favor careful and cautious development of powerful technologies, but will neither stifle evolutionary advancement nor cringe before the unfamiliar. We regard timidity and stagnation as unworthy of us. Extropians therefore favor surging ahead — riding the waves of future shock — rather than stagnating or reverting to primitivism. Intelligent use of biotechnology and nanotechnology and the opening of new frontiers in space, can remove resource constraints and discharge environmental pressures.
We favor technologies for the beneficial results they can bring. We do not pursue technological advance for its own sake. Intelligent Technology means not only using technology to amplify our abilities, but also designing tools and technologies that suit us rather than compelling us to conform to their workings.
We see the coming years and decades as a time of enormous changes, changes that will vastly expand our opportunities and abilities, transforming our lives for the better. This technological transformation will be accelerated by genetic engineering, life extending biosciences, intelligence intensifiers, smarter interfaces to swifter computers, neural-computer integration, worldwide data networks, virtual reality, intelligent agents, swift electronic communications, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, neural networks, artificial life, off-planet migration, and molecular nanotechnology.
5. OPEN SOCIETY
Extropians value open societies that protect the free exchange of ideas, the freedom to criticize, and the liberty to experiment. More dangerous than bad ideas is the coercive suppression of bad ideas. Better ideas must be allowed to emerge in our institutions through an evolutionary process of creation, mutation, and critical selection. The freedom of expression of an open society is best protected by a social order characterized by voluntary relationships and exchanges. We oppose self-proclaimed and involuntarily imposed "authorities", and we are skeptical of coercive political solutions, unquestioning obedience to leaders, and inflexible hierarchies that smother initiative and intelligence.
We apply critical rationalism to society by holding all institutions and processes open to continued improvement. Sustained progress and effective, rational decision-making require the diverse sources of information and differing perspectives that flourish in open societies. Centralized command of behavior constrains exploration, diversity, and dissenting opinion. We can pursue extropian goals in numerous types of open social orders but not in theocracies or authoritarian or totalitarian systems. Societies with pervasive and coercively enforced centralized control cannot allow dissent and diversity. Yet open societies can allow institutions of all kinds to exist—whether participatory, autonomy-maximizing institutions or hierarchical, bureaucratic institutions. Within an open society individuals, through their voluntary consent, may choose to submit themselves to more restrictive arrangements in the form of clubs, private communities, or corporate entities. Open societies allow more rigidly organized social structures to exist so long as individuals are free to leave. By serving as a framework within which social experimentation can proceed, open societies encourage exploration, innovation, and progress.
Extropians avoid utopian plans for "the perfect society", instead appreciating the diversity in values, lifestyle preferences, and approaches to solving problems. In place of the static perfection of a utopia, we prefer an "extropia"—simply an open, evolving framework allowing individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms they prefer. Even where we find some of those choices mistaken or foolish, we affirm the value of a system that allows all ideas to be tried with the consent of those involved.
We have no use for the technocratic idea of coercive central control by self-proclaimed experts. No group of experts can understand and control the endless complexity of an economy and society composed of other individuals like themselves. Unlike utopians of all stripes, Extropians do not seek to control the details of people’s live or the forms and functions of institutions according to a grand over-arching plan. Since we all live in society, we are deeply concerned with its improvement. But that improvement must respect the individual. Social engineering should be piecemeal as we enhance institutions one by one on a voluntary basis, not through a centrally planned coercive implementation of a single vision. We seek continually to improve social institutions and economic mechanisms. Yet we recognize the difficulties in improving complex systems. We are radical in intent but cautious in approach, being aware that alterations to complex systems bring unintended consequences. Simultaneous experimentation with numerous possible solutions and improvements—social parallel processing—works better than utopian centrally administered technocracy.
We see all law and government not as ends in themselves but as means to happiness and progress. We do not attach ourselves to any particular laws or economic structures as ultimate ends. We favor those laws and policies which at any time seem most conducive to maintaining and expanding the openness and progress of society. To foster open societies we oppose dangerous concentrations of coercive power and we favor the rule of law instead of the arbitrary rule of authorities. Recognizing that coercive power corrupts and leads to the suppression of alternative ideas and practices, we favor applying rules and laws equally to legislators and enforcers without exception. We champion open societies as frameworks for the peaceful, productive pursuit of individual and group goals.
Extropians seek neither to rule nor to be ruled. We hold that individuals should be in charge of their own lives. Healthy societies require a combination of liberty and responsibility. For open societies to exist, individuals must be free to pursue their own interests in their own way. But for individuals and societies to flourish, liberty must come with personal responsibility. The demand for freedom without responsibility is an adolescentÂ’s demand for license.
Extropians value open societies that protect the free exchange of ideas, the freedom to criticize, and the liberty to experiment. More dangerous than bad ideas is the coercive suppression of bad ideas. Better ideas must be allowed to emerge in our institutions through an evolutionary process of creation, mutation, and critical selection. The freedom of expression of an open society is best protected by a social order characterized by voluntary relationships and exchanges. We oppose self-proclaimed and involuntarily imposed "authorities", and we are skeptical of coercive political solutions, unquestioning obedience to leaders, and inflexible hierarchies that smother initiative and intelligence.
We apply critical rationalism to society by holding all institutions and processes open to continued improvement. Sustained progress and effective, rational decision-making require the diverse sources of information and differing perspectives that flourish in open societies. Centralized command of behavior constrains exploration, diversity, and dissenting opinion. We can pursue extropian goals in numerous types of open social orders but not in theocracies or authoritarian or totalitarian systems. Societies with pervasive and coercively enforced centralized control cannot allow dissent and diversity. Yet open societies can allow institutions of all kinds to exist—whether participatory, autonomy-maximizing institutions or hierarchical, bureaucratic institutions. Within an open society individuals, through their voluntary consent, may choose to submit themselves to more restrictive arrangements in the form of clubs, private communities, or corporate entities. Open societies allow more rigidly organized social structures to exist so long as individuals are free to leave. By serving as a framework within which social experimentation can proceed, open societies encourage exploration, innovation, and progress.
Extropians avoid utopian plans for "the perfect society", instead appreciating the diversity in values, lifestyle preferences, and approaches to solving problems. In place of the static perfection of a utopia, we prefer an "extropia"—simply an open, evolving framework allowing individuals and voluntary groupings to form the institutions and social forms they prefer. Even where we find some of those choices mistaken or foolish, we affirm the value of a system that allows all ideas to be tried with the consent of those involved.
We have no use for the technocratic idea of coercive central control by self-proclaimed experts. No group of experts can understand and control the endless complexity of an economy and society composed of other individuals like themselves. Unlike utopians of all stripes, Extropians do not seek to control the details of people’s live or the forms and functions of institutions according to a grand over-arching plan. Since we all live in society, we are deeply concerned with its improvement. But that improvement must respect the individual. Social engineering should be piecemeal as we enhance institutions one by one on a voluntary basis, not through a centrally planned coercive implementation of a single vision. We seek continually to improve social institutions and economic mechanisms. Yet we recognize the difficulties in improving complex systems. We are radical in intent but cautious in approach, being aware that alterations to complex systems bring unintended consequences. Simultaneous experimentation with numerous possible solutions and improvements—social parallel processing—works better than utopian centrally administered technocracy.
We see all law and government not as ends in themselves but as means to happiness and progress. We do not attach ourselves to any particular laws or economic structures as ultimate ends. We favor those laws and policies which at any time seem most conducive to maintaining and expanding the openness and progress of society. To foster open societies we oppose dangerous concentrations of coercive power and we favor the rule of law instead of the arbitrary rule of authorities. Recognizing that coercive power corrupts and leads to the suppression of alternative ideas and practices, we favor applying rules and laws equally to legislators and enforcers without exception. We champion open societies as frameworks for the peaceful, productive pursuit of individual and group goals.
Extropians seek neither to rule nor to be ruled. We hold that individuals should be in charge of their own lives. Healthy societies require a combination of liberty and responsibility. For open societies to exist, individuals must be free to pursue their own interests in their own way. But for individuals and societies to flourish, liberty must come with personal responsibility. The demand for freedom without responsibility is an adolescentÂ’s demand for license.