Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/EXTROPICON Futurist Lexicon

Text File | 1994-11-11 | 15KB | 330 lines

L E X T R O P I C O N or:

NEOLOGISMS OF USE (AND AMUSEMENT) FOR THE FUTURE

Compiled by Max More (03/30/94)


ADHOCRACY: A non-bureaucratic networked organization. This form is already common
in organizations such as law firms, consulting companies and research
universities. Such organizations and institutions must continually readjust to a
changing array of projects, each requiring somewhat different combinations of
skills and other resources. These organizations depend on many rapidly shifting
project teams and much lateral communication among these relatively autonomous,
entrepreneurial groups."  [SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Sept. '91, p.133. Alvin Toffler,
Future Shock, 1970]

AEONOMICS: (from aeon and economics)  The study of the economic problems of
immortal existence. [Mark Plus; August 1991]

A-LIFE: Artificial life: The modelling of complex, life-like behavior in computer
programs. A-Life forms can evolve and produce behaviors not contained within
rules set by the programmers.

AMORTALIST: A person who opposes death.

ARCH-ANARCHY: The view that we should seek to void all limits on our freedom,
including those imposed by the laws of nature. [T.O. Morrow, 1990]

ASIMORT: (a) A dead science fiction writer. (b) A dead secular humanist. (c) Any
person who believes it to be their duty to die to "make room" for future
generations. [Mark Plus, April 1992]

ATHANASIA: The act of preventing death. [W.T. Quick, 1988]

ATHANOPHY: A philosophical system that offers a possible means of overcoming
death scientifically. [Michael Perry, 1991]

ATHEOSIS: The process of recovering from belief in God. [Mark Plus; August 1991]

AUGMENT: A person whose physical or cognitive abilities have been technologically
expanded beyond the range of natural humans. [David Brin, The Postman]

BIOLOGICAL FUNDAMENTALISM: A new conservatism that resists asexual reproduction,
genetic engineering, altering the human anatomy, overcoming death. A resistance
to the evolution from the human to the posthuman. [FM-2030]

BIOSTASIS: Broader than "cryonic suspension"; suspension of all biological
activity, by infusing the patient with cryoprotective chemicals and freezing or
vitrifying (cryonic suspension), or by chemically bonding cellular components in
place. [K. Eric Drexler, 1986]

BOGOSITY FILTER: A mechanism for detecting bogus ideas and propositions.

BROADCATCHING: "Catching television and other media selectively so that the sum
of the collected parts is personalized."  (Quote by Nicholas P. Negroponte,
Scientific American, September 1991, p.112.) [Coined by Stewart Brand, The Media
Lab, 1987.]

CALCUTTA SYNDROME: The condition in which the ratio of available mass to
population falls below the minimum level necessary to support a given quality of
life (M/P < mC). [David Krieger, November 1991]

CEREBROSTHESIS: (from cerebral and prosthesis) n. An electronic device interfaced
with the brain to overcome a neurological deficiency, such as normal human
intelligence. (Cf. neuroprosthesis - see EXTROPY #7). [Mark Plus; August 1991]

CHRONONAUTS: Those who travel through time, either by biostasis or through
possible loopholes in physical laws as currently understood.

CONNECTIONISM: n. The approach to cognitive science that gives a fundamental
explanatory role to neuron-like interconnections rather than to formal or
explicit rules of thought.

CONTELLIGENCE: (Consciousness + intelligence)  The combination of awareness and
computational power required in an Artificially Intelligent network before we
could, without loss of anything essential, upload ourselves into them. [Timothy
Leary]

CRYOCRASTINATE: v. To put off making arrangements for cryonic suspension. [Mark
Plus; August 1991]

CRYP: Cryptographic currency, digital cash. Payment by electronic means where the
seller is guaranteed payment, but the buyer can remain anonymous. [Eli Brandt,
11/11/92, on the Extropians E-mail List]


CYBERCIDE: The killing of a person's projected virtual persona in cyberspace.
This may be part of a VR game, or may be an act of vandalism. [Max More; August
1991]

CYBERFICTION: Science fiction embodying the technological ideas of cyberpunk,
without necessarily embodying cyberpunk's amoralism or nihilism. [Max More, May
1991]

CYBERNATE/CYBERNIZE: To automate a process using computers and robots.

CYBERSPACE/CYBERMATRIX: The informational and computational space existing in and
between computers.

CYBRARIAN: Computer Net-oriented information specialist. [Jean Armour Polly,
1992]

CYPHERPUNK: One interested in the uses of encryption using electronic cyphers for
enhancing personal privacy and guarding against tyranny by centralized,
authoritarian power structues, especially government.

DEANIMALIZE: Replace our animal organs and body parts with durable, pain-free
non-flesh prostheses. [FM-2030]

DEATHISM: The set of beliefs and attitudes which glorifies or accepts death and
rejects or despises immortality.

DEEP ANARCHY: The view that "the State" has no real existence; states can be
abolished only by changing beliefs and behavior. [Max More, 1989]

DEFLESH: To replace flesh with non-flesh. [FM-2030]

DISASTERBATION: Idly fantasizing about possible catastrophes (ecological
collapse, full-blown totalitarianism) without considering their likelihood or
considering their possible solutions and preventions. [David Krieger, 1993]

DIVIDUALS: A copy of a personality surviving in more than one body. Example:
"Keith Henson wishes to become a colllection of such dividuals so that he-plural
can explore the galaxy in parallel."  [Mark Plus, 1992]

ECOCALYPSE: (from ecological and apocalypse) A projected ecological catastrophe
which would destroy all life on Earth. [Mark Plus; August 1991]

ECTOGENESIS: In vitro reproduction; synthetic wombs.

EPHEMERALISTS: Persons who reject immortalist technology and values (the result
of deathist thinking). [MM, 1990, from "Ephemeral", Robert A. Heinlein, 1958]

EUPSYCHIA: A society specifically designed for improving the self- fulfilment and
psychological health of all people. A culture or sub- culture made up of
psychologically healthy or mature or self-actualizing people. A Eupsychian
sub-culture is "decentralized, voluntary yet coordinated, productive, and with a
powerful and effective code of ethics (which works)."  (Maslow.)  [Abraham
Maslow, 1954]

EVOLUTURE: An organism produced through evolution; the antonym of creature. [Mark
Plus, June 1991]

EXTROPIA: A conception of evolving communities embodying values of Boundless
Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Inteligent Technology, and
Spontaneous Order. May be instantiated in virtual cultural communities such as
those on the Net, or in future actual communities such as Extropolis or Free
Oceana. [T.O. Morrow, 1991]

EXTROPIAN: One who affirms the values and attitudes codified and expressed in The
Extropian Principles.

EXTROPIATE: Any drug that has extropic effects, including all cognition enhancing
and life extending drugs. [David Krieger, December 1991]

EXTROPIC: Any action or process that promotes extropy.

EXTROPOLIS: A proposed Extropian community located in our solar system, probably
at L-4 or L-5 orbits, or the Asteroid Belt. [Max More, 1991]

EXTROPY: A measure of intelligence, information, energy, life, experience,
diversity, opportunity, and growth. The collection of forces which oppose
entropy. [T.O. Morrow, 1988]

FUTIQUE: Stylishly futuristic.

FUTURE SHOCK: A sense of shock felt by those who were not paying attention.
[Michael Flynn, ANALOG Jan 1990.]

GENEGENEERING: Genetic engineering.

HYPERTEXT: Massively interconnected database providing the ability to track
information in all directions, notify you of updated information, etc. [Ted
Nelson]

IMMORTECHNICS: Collectively, the technologies which are applied to attempt
radical life extension, such as calorie-restricted dieting, cryonics, uploading,
etc. [Mark Plus, July 1991]

IMP: Electronic implant, especially in the brain. [Ron Hale Evans]

INACTIVATE: Non-living but not dead (in the latter's permanent sense). A person
in biostasis, or one subsisting in data storage, awaiting downloading. [Max More,
1989]

INFOMORPH: A uploaded intelligence, or information entity, which resides in a
computer. See Charles Platt, The Silicon Man, p.109. [1991]

KNOWBOTS: Knowledge robots, first developed Vinton G. Cref and Robert E. Kahn for
National Research Initiatives. Lnowbots are programmed by users to scan networks
for varios kinds of related information, regardless of the language or form in
which it expressed. "Knowbots support parallel computations at different sites.
They communicate with one another, and with various servers in the network and
with users."  [Scientific American, September 1991, p.74.]

MEME: Self-reproducing idea or other information pattern which is propagated in
ways similar to that of a gene. [Rochard Dawkins, 1976]

MEMETICS: The study of memes. [Douglas R. Hofstadter]

MEMOID (or MEMEOID): True believer in a meme and willing to die for it. [Keith
Henson, 1985]

MORPHOLOGICAL FREEDOM: The ability to alter bodily form at will through
technologies such as surgery, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, uploading.
[Max More, April 1992]

NANARCHIST: Someone who circumvents government control to use nanotechnology, or
someone who advocates this. [Eli Brandt, October 1991]

(MOLECULAR) NANOTECHNOLOGY: The technology of preceisly- constructed
molecular-scale machines; from nanometer: a billionth of a meter. [K. Eric
Drexler,198?]

NEG: Smeone who typically complains, moans, and whines,  Someone practicing the
opposite of dynamic optimism.

NEOPHILE: One who welcomes the future and who enjoys change and evolution.

NEOPHOBE: One who fears change and wants to abort technological and social
transformation.

NEUROCOMPUTATION: The study of how natural and artificial neural networks process
information.

NEURONAUT: A person who explores their own neural functioning and internal
mentational processes by various means, including deep introspection and
meditation, psychoactive drugs, mind machines, and neuroscientific understanding.

NEUROPROSTHESIS: Implanted cybernetic brain augmentation.

NOOTROPIC: A cognition-enhancing drug that has no significant side- effects. (cf.
EXTROPIATE)  [C. Giurgea]

PARTIAL: A computer simulation of part of a person's personality, creted in order
to carry out a task not requiring the entire person. [Greg Bear, Eon, 1985]

PARTIALATE: A partial personality used as a personality surrogate (see
persogate). [Max More, July 1991. See Cryonics, November 1991]

PERICOMPUTER: Any small portable device such as a laptop computer or PDA
(personal digital assistant). [Lawrence G. Tesler]

PERSOGATE: A portable expert system used as a personality surrogate (as in Bruce
Sterling's  Schizmatrix). [R.E. Whitaker, June 1991]

POSTHUMAN: Persons of unprecedented physical, intellectual, and psychological
capacity, self-programming, self-constituting, potentially immortal, unlimited
individuals. [Term: FM-2030  Def.: Max More]

POWERSHIFT: A transfer of power involving a change in the nature of power, from
violence to wealth, or from wealth to knowlege. Alvin Toffler, in Powershift,
1990]

RIF: A Rifkinite, or supporter of Jeremy Rifkn and his anti-genetic engineering,
anti-nanotech crusade; against any and all research or implementation in these
areas. [Glenn Grant, 1990]

SINGULARITY: The postulated point or short period in our future when our
self-guided evolutionary development accelerates enormously (powered by nanotech,
neuroscience, AI, and perhaps uploading) so that nothing beyond that time can
reliably be conceived. [Vernor Vinge, 1986]

SINGULARITARIAN: One who advocates the idea that technological progress will
cause a singularity in human history. (cf. Singularity in EXTROPY #7.) [Mark
Plus, August 1991]

SMART-FACED: The condition resulting from social use of cognition- enhancing
drugs: "Let's get smart-faced."  [Russell E. Whitaker, December 1991]

SPONTANEOUS VOLUNTARISM: A fully free society, with a totally free market and no
institutionalized coercion. [Max More, 1989]

TAZ/Temporary Autonomous Zone: A mobile or transient location free of economic
and social interference by the state. [Hakim Bey]

TRANSBIOMORPHOSIS (TRANSBIOLOGICAL METAMORPHOSIS): The transformation of the
human body from a natural, biological organism into a superior, consciously
designed vehicle of personality. [Max More, August 1991]

TRANSCLUSION: A thing existing in more than one place at once; virtual copying of
information used in hypertext systems, such as Xanadu. [Ted Nelson, BYTE,
September 1990.]

TRANSHUMAN: Someone actively preparing for beomcing posthuman. Someone who is
informed enough to see radical future possibilities and plans ahead for them, and
who takes every current option for self-enhancement. [Term: FM-2030  Def.: Max
More]

TRANSHUMANISM: Philosophies of life (such as extropian perspectives) that seek
the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its
currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology,
guided by life- promoting principles and values. [Max More], 1990

TRANSHUMANITIES: Art, literature, and other aesthetic media for transhumans.
[Mark Plus, 1990]

UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING: Also known as "embodied virtuality". Computers that are an
integral, invisible part of people's lives. In some ways the opposite of virtual
reality, in which the user is absorbed into the computational world. With
ubiquitous computing, computers take into account the human world rather than
requiring humans to enter into the computer's methods of working. [See Mark
Weiser, "The Computer for the 21st Century. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, Sept. 1991]

UNIVERSAL IMMORTALISM: The view that the problem of death can be solved in its
entirety (including bringing back those "dead" who were not placed into
biostasis) through a rational, scientific approach. [R. Michael Perry, 1990]

VENTURISM: An immortalist transhumanism founded on the principles (1) to do what
is right, understood as implying the benefiting of intelligent life and the
reduction or elimination of abuses to the same; and (2) the advocacy and
promotion of the worldwide conquest of death through technological means. [David
Pizer, 1986]

VIRTUAL COMMUNITY: A community of persons not located in close physical proximity
but forming a cultural community across computer networks.

VIRTUAL RIGHTS: Rights given for convenience to a partial; these rights are
really rights of the person whose partial it is, rather than of the

partial itself. Similar in some respects to currently existing corporate rights.
[Max More, July 1991; See CRYONICS, November 1991]

VITOLOGY: The study of any life-like system, including biology and artificial
life. [Max More, December 1991]

XENOEVOLUTURE: An evoluture from a planet other than Earth. [Jay Prime Positive,
December 1991]