So the "special event" in Second Life that had been announced was Max More's surprise birthday party, which Natasha and I had been organizing in secret. Max had been asked to come to SL to say a few words of introduction for a undisclosed "European thinker, rather well known in the transhumanist community." Even if this description does fit Max, he was indeed surprised. I said a few words about finding his writings online in the mid 90s and how his ideas put my and so many other person's minds on permanent fire, and thanked him. I had asked for volunteers to sing a birthday song but nobody dared, so I sang myself "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and wish to apologize to all those whose hearing was permanently damaged. About 55 people came to the party, I am sure many more would have come if we had announced what the event was. Well, I had written "What I can say is this: you should attend! Don't tell me later that I did not warn you!", hadn't I.
See Stephen's Flickr page for many other pictures and the cosmeng.org wiki for the full chat log. This was a surprise social event so don't expect a lecture, but the chat log has many interesting bits on the relationship between Extropy and Transhumanism, the Principles of Extropy (BEST DO IT SO!), the early history of the Extropy Institute, the Bean Dip Catastrophe, religion, Max' forthcoming book and, of course, the future. Bill summarized everyone's feelings: "We want more Max! More Max!"
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