John Nash, proto-Extropian?

From: hal@finney.org

Date: Tue Feb 19 2002 - 15:56:42 MST

I've just started reading Sylvia Nasar's biography of mathematician John

Nash, A Beautiful Mind, on which the current movie is based. Nash made

major contributions to economics among other fields before descending

into schizophrenia. But this list of his earlier character traits sounded

eerily familiar:



- "His heroes were solitary thinkers and supermen like Newton and

Nietzsche."



- "Computers and science fiction were his passion."



- "He considered 'thinking machines', as he called them, superior in some

ways to human beings."



- "At one point, he became fascinated by the possibility that drugs could

heighten physical and intellectual performance."



- "He was beguiled by the idea of alien races of hyper-rational beings

who had taught themselves to disregard all emotion."



I think you could find people on this list who would share many of

these views. Attraction to Newton, Nietzsche, computers and science

fiction; exploration of drugs and supplements to enhance body and mind;

emphasis on rationality as a means to the truth; all are common elements

of Extropian thought.



Hal

