Sci-Fi cover for a real-life agenda?
A Second Life transhumanist, despite her sim’s ties to movement leaders and government agencies, insists it’s all “science fiction.”
Fishers of pre-posthumans? Second Lifers drop a line in the Extropia sim. (Image: From the Extropia Core website)
by Mark Baard
One of the founders of Extropia said this week denied she is propagating any ideology through the online sim.
Extropia founder and blogger “Galatea Gynoid,” as she’s known in Second Life, this week posted a rebuttal to “certain people” (see excerpt, below) who see more to the sim than an evolving work of pure fiction.
Extropia is an area within Second Life where people, via their 3D avatars, gather to discuss transhumanism, science and science fiction.
Gynoid says she started Extropia so that she and like-minded Second Lifers might enjoy an alternative to the depressing, dystopian sims they found elsewhere in the metaverse.
But Gynoid, by trying to have it both ways, may be trying to duck criticism from those who see the transhumanist agenda at work in Extropia.
By co-hosting events with real life (RL) transhumanists and U.S. government agencies, for example, it is clear that Extropia is more than fiction. It is also a meeting place for believers.
Extropia co-hosted a NASA “future forum” on May 14. And in two weeks, the sim will host a technology and religion conference meant to “re-cast our understanding of ‘humanity’ in the Third Millennium.”
Why “Extropia”? | Extropia Core
There are certain people out there who are insisting you need to subscribe to a particular ideology to be welcome here. The funny thing is, the majority of the Board of Directors wouldnt [sic] be allowed in Extropia if what they said is true. I myself, the founder and owner of the sims, would not be allowed in Extropia if what they said was true. Its utterly, patently ridiculous.
Filed under: Cults, Metaverses, NASA, Psyops, Science, Science fiction, Second Life, Space, Transhumanism, Virtual reality, Websites, technology, virtual worlds | Tagged: Bloggers, Cults, extropians, religion, Second Life, Transhumanism, virtual worlds
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Extropia: Fascinating stuff I remain blissfully ignorant of. Perhaps to my detriment…
“But Gynoid, by trying to have it both ways, may be trying to duck criticism from those who see the transhumanist agenda at work in Extropia.”
Pointing out where someone is in error is not “ducking criticism”. Pointing out where criticism is false and based on bad info isn’t ducking. When someone in a debate points out you’re wrong, they’re not “ducking”, they’re responding. But it doesn’t surprise me that those who love to hype conspiracy theories would try to grossly mischaracterize such actions.
“By co-hosting events with real life (RL) transhumanists and U.S. government agencies, for example, it is clear that Extropia is more than fiction. It is also a meeting place for believers.”
Absolutely! Since we don’t exclude people based on their beliefs, the fact that some people of a particular belief meet in our sim proves nothing beyond that they aren’t prevented from doing so. The SL-Transhumanists group built their headquarters in our sim, and we’re quite happy to have them. Given that we don’t promote any agenda, and therefore don’t exclude anyone, doesn’t it make sense that they and other such people would meet there?
What’s illogical is to say the *sim* has or promotes any such ideology based on that. If real-life transhumanists meet in Boston, does this mean the City of Boston has a transhumanist agenda? Or does it merely mean that anyone willing to hold a peaceful meeting is welcome to use the city to do so? One of these conclusions is logical, and one is ridiculous conspiracy fodder.
The SL-Transhumanists are welcome here. As long as they pay their rent and don’t cause trouble, they’ll continue to be welcome here. This really doesn’t prove any agenda on my part beyond my agenda to suck sufficient money out of people every month to keep the sim afloat. And if you want to accuse me of being a money-grubbing capitalist, I must say, guilty as charged. I have yet to turn down any renter. Since it’s a themed sim, I do ask that people build within theme, but I couldn’t give a flying frak what you believe or want to discuss in your new home or business or HQ.
If the whole basis for your argument is that we allow certain groups to promote themselves in our sim, it’s an utterly illogical argument. The alternative would be to ban them, but we wouldn’t do that unless we *did* have an agenda, and we don’t. Since we have no such agenda, they and anyone else is welcome to meet in our sim to discuss whatever they like. The only thing we don’t tolerate is personal attacks, griefing, and abuse. Since the SL-Transhumanists group doesn’t do this, we don’t ban them.
Consistently applying the same, belief-neutral criteria to all comers is not “having it both ways”, or even “having it every way”, even though such an approach allows an essentially infinite number of ways to be welcome here. It’s having it one way, the one way being openness and tolerance to any belief system. You can point out all day how we don’t exclude the transhumanists, and thus they are (like anyone else) welcome here. That proves precisely zero in terms of mine or the sim’s mythical agenda.
If you think I’m mischaracterizing your view with the talk of suppression, understand the basis: You’re claiming that the presence of such activity proves we have an agenda. But the only way we can insure such activity doesn’t occur would be to suppress it. Your criteria for judging that we don’t have a pro-transhumanist agenda would require that we have an anti-transhumanist and pro-censorship agenda. Since we have neither, we’ll never meet that criteria. But that’s not because we have an agenda, it’s because the criteria you’re using is ridiculous.
To make a long story short: Allowing people to promote beliefs I don’t personally believe is not “trying to have it both ways”. It’s simply proof that I do, in fact, support open discussion of things, even when I don’t agree with them.
I’m sorry if the facts don’t fit your conspiracy theories.
Haha, I do love a good conspiracy theory!
“Extropia is an area within Second Life where people, via their 3D avatars, gather to discuss transhumanism, science and science fiction.”
That’s true as far as I goes. We also discuss really bad movies, really good art, funny names for fish, who’s sleeping with whom, retrofuturist architecture, the design of World War II aircraft, how laggy SL is today, when the next party’s going to be, which shops are having sales, how good I look in this top, the past and future of jazz improvisation, the virtues of backrub poseballs, conspiracy theories, psychology, dance notations…
If all you see when you look at Extropia is a bunch of frothing transhumanists, you’re wearing blinders that you’d really be better off without…