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Home/Biography/Writing/Consulting/Life Extension/Updates/LinksSELF-OWNERSHIP:
Max More, Ph.D.
Consider two alternative futures, drawn in caricature to bring out my point:
Scenario 1: The Abandonment of Self-Ownership.
09/19/98: Following serious illnesses of seven people resulting from contaminated vitamin E, The Food and Drug Administration makes all vitamins prescription-only.
12/04/98: The Council on the Future calls for an end to technological progress. The Council says the public needs relief from the stress of constant innovation, excessive choice, and pervasive uncertainty.
06/01/99: At the opening of the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "Anything Goes", spokesperson Gloria Portney explains that the artists were proclaiming the value of indulging feelings, and showing that self-discipline represses the free spirit.
11/05/2000: Several states in the USA pass initiatives holding corporations responsible for all injuries involving their products, regardless of fault. Maximum damage awards are tripled. An Economic Strategy Institute study projects a 22% drop in stock market values due to an increase in frivolous lawsuits, two millions jobs lost, and a substantial cut in economic output.
12/30/2000: Congress passes new laws raising taxes on corporate profits made from new technologies.
02/04/2001: A new Gallup poll reveals that membership in fundamentalist churches has grown 31% over the last four years. In the same period, the Church of Gaia has grown 344%. The Church of Gaia holds that humans have value only as caretakers of Mother Earth.
04/12/2001: In the UK, the Archbishop of Canterbury complains of the rapid growth of cult membership. He implores cult members to leave and join the Church of true salvation.
08/25/2002: President Gore continues his program of centralizing economic control.
07/22/2003: Top of the NY Times bestseller list: "What Would My Guru Say?"
7/15/2004: The National Association of Teachers praises the strengthening of school programs teaching obedience and how to follow rules.
06/14/2006: The Council of Economic Advisors is combined with the Federal Reserve to form a new Office of Economic Control, which will centralize decisions about production and distribution. A spokesperson admits that central control will produce less wealth than free markets, but says this move fits with the public desire to be relieved of uncertainty and change.
03/13/2007: A recent report detailing the rapid growth over the last decade in murders, thefts, and assaults, and a general decline in manners, prompted a call from Vice President Galbraith for "stronger, more far-reaching and benevolent government."
10/02/2008: At todays United Nations session on "Western Guilt and Third World Poverty" the governments of the US and the United States of Europe agreed to transfer 10% of their tax revenue to African governments next year, with that amount growing to 20% over the following five years. "We are responsible for everyones poverty" stated US representative Ralph Ehrlich.
Scenario 2: The Triumph of Self-Ownership.
1/15/98: NT Times bestseller: Dr. Nathaniel Brandens Taking Responsibility.
12/3/98: The government announces that over the next three years all state schools will be privatized. Tax breaks will be given for educational expenses, and some vouchers given for a transitional period.
06/01/99: At the opening of the Museum of Modern Art exhibition "Taking Charge of Evolution", extropic artists of many media present optimistic, scientifically-based visions of possibility and achievement.
9/17/99: The Supreme Court finds that laws against voluntary euthanasia are unconstitutional since they violate the right of self-ownership. The Courts decision asks "If the individual does not own his or her own life, what can they own?"
6/10/2000: Congress approves a plan for completely privatizing social security. Tax breaks are to be given to encourage personal responsibility for saving.
1/10/2001: The National Association of Teachers urges the expansion of critical thinking courses and the teaching of reasoning skills in all subjects. With the introduction of choice and competition in schooling, experts predict that critical thinking and effective reasoning skills will become important elements of most schools curriculums. Parents and businesses are demanding such skills to empower individuals to deal with change and complexity.
3/19/2001: The top rate of personal income tax is reduced to 24% and the lowest rate reduced to 12%. Corporate profit taxes are abolished. The Economic Research Institute forecasts an additional 2.5% annual economic growth over the next five years as investment increases.
4/14/2003: The Alliance of Fundamentalist Churches, noting the decline in religious fundamentalism, declares it a sign that the Devil has taken control and that we should expect the Second Coming very soon. The Reverend Richard Bigott calls for the public to stop their growing support of humanist, skeptic, and Extropian organizations and projects before their souls are lost forever.
7/18/2004: A Supreme Court decision, confirming recent lower court decisions, recognized a fundamental right to control ones own body. All abortion laws and drug laws are found unconstitutional. Schools and other institutions announce expanded educational campaigns to provide information about the effects of drugs helping everyone to make informed decisions about drug use.
8/12/2005: The Food and Drug Administration is dismantled. All safety and product quality ratings will be carried out on a subscription basis by private companies. Penalties for insufficient testing for safety are reviewed and consumers urged to check with the rating agencies.
3/15/2006: A Skeptic magazine poll shows that, compared with ten years ago, belief in angels is down 42%, belief in alien abductions is down 73%, and 34% fewer believe in psychic phenomena.
2/8/2007: ThinkSoft reports a 55% jump in quarterly profits due to strong sales of "Think For Yourself"its artificially intelligent software package for boosting critical thinking and personal decision-making skills.
Most of my friends and colleagues value self-ownership. This value seems like a normal part of my world. Every so often I catch a glimpse of the broader culture. These glimpses act as reminders, little surprises, that many people not only are not prepared for becoming posthuman, they still live in the Dark Ages. When I was looking for part-time teaching positions in philosophy I sent inquiry letters to colleges in my area. From one, the religious nature of which I was previously unaware, I received back a "Statement of Faith". This was to be signed by all faculty before they could be considered. Among the statements to which I would have to agree, if I were to teach there, was this one: "We believe in the fall of man and his consequent total moral depravity, resulting in his exceeding sinfulness and lost state, and necessitating his regeneration by the Holy Spirit." After recovering my composure I crossed that college off my list.
Original Sin has been a religious means of getting humans to give up psychological control of their lives to an ideology and to religious authorities. The idea that we are born sinners goes together with blind faith. Faith undermines our ability to think independentlyto own our minds. In our Christian-dominated culture these ideas continue to profoundly undermine self-ownership. Attacks on the very conditions of self-ownership come not only from the metaphysical but from the political and moral. In the 20th century, various forms of collectivismthe belief that the group (state, race, tribe, humanity) is primary over the individualhave prepared millions to relinquish their personal freedom and responsibility. Altruismthe belief that self-interest is immoral and that morality primarily and fundamentally involves serving othershas erected high barriers to ethical and psychological self-ownership. On the philosophical front, the radical skepticism that was trendy for years made confident self-direction difficult. If you cannot know anything and cannot make your beliefs more accurate, no reliable self-guidance can be possible.
Major cultural and intellectual changes will be needed before we can become posthuman self-owners. Mere abstract acceptance of extropian principles and values is not enough for a person or a culture to be extropian, to be prepared for the future. Becoming posthuman through extropian living means putting theory into practice. To live extropically we need to act extropically. Only when theory and action combine to produce an integrated life do we achieve extropic living. A powerful component of this idea-action integration is the concept of self-ownership. Self-ownership as understood here, has philosophical, psychological, and political aspects.
As an extropian, I affirm that I own my body, my mind, and my life. I hold that everyone owns himself, even though many people act otherwise and want others to control them in some way. Self-ownership as a principle provides us with a powerful concept for mastering our lives, both in the present and as we race toward a posthuman future of unprecedented possibility.
Some of the anti-self-ownership ideas mentioned abovealtruism, original sin, collectivismhave often been combined in a co-dependent relationship with another historically powerful and hugely damaging belief. This destructive idea is the assertion of mind-body dualism. Mind-body dualism takes a variety of forms. In essence though, this view asserts that the physical world is entirely separate from the world of mind, of personality, of soul. Invariably accompanying this belief is the corollary that the physical is inferior to the mental or spiritual, that the body is filthy, evil, degenerate. In Christian variations of the idea, the physical world is the realm of Satan, and the body is the locus of sinful desires that can lead to eternal damnation. In the Platonic variant, a variant that has powerfully affected western thought, including Christianity, the physical world of our experience is merely a sadly imperfect reflection of a perfect, eternal realm of Forms. In Eastern religions, mind-body dualism takes the form of seeing the body and its desires and sensations as distractions from spiritual progress. Breaking free of the endless process of reincarnation and of karma and achieving nirvana requires a detachment from the physical.
I suggest a replacement of mind-body dualism with a view of mind and body, physical and intellectual, material and spiritual as integrated. Self-ownership embraces ownership of all aspects of my self: my body, my emotions, my intellect, my values. I express my values, beliefs, and emotions in physical actions. I cannot fully own my mind unless I own my body. I cannot own my body if I give up my mind. The two are aspects of one reality and so must be considered as a whole.
Affirming self-ownership means accepting that I am free and responsible. I set my own goals, determine my own values, and guide myself. I own myself and recognize that you own yourself. Therefore I seek neither to rule nor to be ruled. As we move into the future, the complexity of life and the pace of change require us increasingly to be personally responsible, to plot our own course, to set clear goals and direct ourselves. Living an extropian life means more than thinking differently. It means living a life fit for transhumans on the brink of a revolutionary new period in the evolution of life and mind.
Through most of human history, self-ownership has not been seen as a virtue or a desirable principle (other than, in some ways, for the rulers). Psychologically and philosophically, humans have usually believed that they were owned by a god and should conform their beliefs and values to those of religious or cultural authorities. Short lifespans added to this, giving most people little time to develop a strong sense of self. Women, children, slaves, and serfs were taught obedience, not self-assertion, self-respect, or self-development.
Politically and socially, the ideas of self-ownership, individual liberty, and personal responsibility emerged only within the last two centurieseven more recently (mostly limited to the western world) for women. Even todays democracies embody the idea that we all rule each other rather than owning and ruling only ourselves.
At the present stage of human development, at least in the freer parts of the world, some degree of self-ownership has become essential. As arranged marriages disappeared, men and women could choose their partner on the basis of personally desired qualities. As a dynamic economy does away with life-long and unchanging jobs we find ourselves continually learning new skills to make a living. As we find ourselves confronted with a vast array of ideasmoral, political, philosophical, religious, artisticthe need to choose between them and find our own identity becomes increasingly acute. As the number of options, possibilities, and distractions grows, the need for clear self-direction intensifies. At the same time, as our weapons of destruction become more powerful and deadly, the value of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and respect for others becomes ever more apparent.
Extropians foresee continuing and accelerating development in technology and society, giving rise to growing complexity, proliferating choices, expanding freedoms, greater dangers. As humans become transhuman the need for self-ownership becomes more pressing and its achievement more rewarding. Perhaps a farmer or a craftsman of the 15th Century could live as well as anyone of the time with little self-ownership. A person of the 21st Century and beyond will need to embrace self-ownership in its every aspect if she is to surviveand survive with style. This essay aims to explore and integrate the various aspects of the idea.
The idea of self-ownership the concepts it contains, the values it implies, the attitudes and commitments it endorses includes philosophical, psychological, and political components. In order to understand the implications of the extropian affirmation of Self-Ownership, I will break it into six aspects:
Independent Thinking
Individual Freedom
Personal Responsibility
Respect for Others
Thinking is hard work. Most people try to do as little as possible. If they can get their ideas from someone else, they will. If someone else seems to be sure they know whats right, many will follow. Intellectual systems, ideologies, cultures, can embody and sustain important insights. They can also be abused by those who want all the answers delivered to them. Even some thinkers who declare themselves to be champions of individualism and rationalism can be dogmatic. Certainly it is easier to admonish others to think critically and independently than it is to be sure we are doing so ourselves.
At the center of self-ownership we find a commitment to independent thinking. Without critical thought we will march to someone elses beat. Without independent thought, full self-ownership is impossible. Without independent thought, even the most rational philosophy becomes a barrier to new discoveries and intellectual progress. To think independently means not only questioning what we are told, but also a willingness to challenge our current beliefs.
Some individualists, especially younger ones and the emotionally underdeveloped, confuse intellectual and cultural independence with reactive rebellion. Ayn Rand labeled such persons "counterfeit individualists". (Alas, some of her followers didnt get the point.) While conformists lazily give up the reins of their minds, counterfeit individualists react against existing ideas and institutions simply to be different. But to blindly reject displays little more independence than unconsciously clinging to existing ideas. Truly independent thinkers steer a careful course between dogmatic adherence to currently established ideas and rebellious rejection of existing ideas for its own sake.
As this balancing act suggests, no simple formula exists for thinking independently and critically. Thinking for ourselves cannot mean absolutely fixed standards, for that would rule out critical thinking about the standards. Neither does independent thought imply thinking arbitrarily. That way lies not progress and independence but chaos, intellectual bankruptcy, and irrationalism. Without intellectual standards, our thinking, our values, our actions will wander aimlessly, impelled by random feelings and external influences.
Exercising our sovereign reason does require adherence to standards of critical thinking. Yet even these standards must themselves remain open to questioning. More fundamental even than accepted standards of thinking (including logic, scientific method, etc.) is a basic willingness to question our own preconceptions. We can think autonomously by identifying ourselves with intellectual progress, not with having to prove we are right. We question beliefs according to our standards, but must also be open to questioning and, if warranted, revising our standards. This "pancritical rationalism" holds everything potentially open to challenge, not out of underlying skepticism about knowledge, but out of a commitment to improving our understanding.
Philosophers may tend to emphasize critical thinking, but independent thinking also requires creative thinking. Pancritical rationalismthe holding of everything open to questioningis fostered by a creative, experimental mindset. If we develop a fertile ability to see new options, new avenues of thought, we will find it easier to detach ourselves from beliefs that are familiar but flawed. Independence of thought, then, asks of us both critical thinking and experimental, creative thinking.
The role of experimentalism reveals how the Extropian principle of Dynamic Optimism supports self-ownership. When observing and participating in discussions with other extropians, I have frequently noticed how their basic optimism encourages an openness to new and better ideas. Dynamic optimism assures us that we can do things better, improve our understanding, move forward. It opens us to new sources of information and new methods. A dynamically optimistic attitude primes us to spot opportunities for advancement and learning. Being dynamically optimistic makes us intensely creative. We become more willing to both see and try out new approaches. Optimists are more willing to take calculated risks, rather than clinging to rusty but familiar ideas. By combining optimistic, experimental, creative thinking with critical thinking, we can achieve intellectual independence.
The social framework for the future must respect individual freedom. Some transhumanists hold outdated economic and political views. H.G. Wells, for example, believed that technological and social progress would be achieved through technocracy"scientific" management of the economy, experts ordering individuals in the right direction. Even today, after the abundance of historical evidence, some statist futurists clamor for a Big Brother to lead us ahead. These future-oriented followers of Marxist mistakes have failed to understand the workings of complex systems. They have refused to understand the workings of spontaneous orders. They have refused to grasp how liberty with responsibility fosters our continued progress.
Extropians differ from other transhumanists in this respect. Extropians do not see themselves as the latest in the long, deluded line of wise rulers who will set everyone straight. Centralized control might have been feasible, though not optimal, in the simpler societies of the past. Centralized coercive direction only holds us back today. It has no place in the future. The more complex economies, societies, and technologies become, the more disastrous it becomes to control the evolving system from on high.
Coercive, bureaucratic, governmental institutions always bring unintended consequences. As economists such as von Mises and Hayek have shown, governments can never have sufficient information to accurately make predictions or control economic variables. Much knowledge of creative and productive processes is not and often cannot be communicated to central planners. Much economic activity utilizes tacit knowledge that cannot form part of a governments planning models. The developing science of complex adaptive systems shows us that faster computers and more complex models cannot overcome this factor.
How can we support the flourishing of complex systems? By recognizing the workings of spontaneous order. Spontaneous order reveals itself in numerous types of complex system. Most famously, 18th Century economist Adam Smiths metaphor of the "invisible hand" revealed how useful social results flowed from the pursuit of individual goals. Start with a basic, stable, comprehensible framework of property rights: the rule of laws, not of rulers, private property, voluntary exchange, and price signals in a free market. Allow every individual to pursue their own interests as they choose within that framework. Then sit back and observe an incredible social organism that generates growing prosperity, technological progress, and social evolution.
Spontaneous order displays itself also in biological evolution. Charles Darwin made his world-changing breakthrough in understanding after reading Adam Smith. Spontaneous order even finds a place in computing. As computer networks have become increasingly complex, instead of computational resources being centrally allocated, distributed, market-like processes are being used. Spontaneous order, not centralized direction, provides the key to the management and sustenance of complexity.
How exactly do the ideas of self-ownership, spontaneous order, free markets, and individual liberty relate to one another? I control my own mind. I decide how to think, what to think about, and for how long to think. I choose my actions, my responses, my values. I own my mind. Exercising my ownership of my mind requires physical action. Mind/body dualism makes full self-ownership impossible. A rational philosophy recognizes that the mental and normative must be embodied and expressed in the physical. My values, desires, and plans need to be translated into action. Owning my self includes owning my body. My bodythe vehicle of my mindis my most intimate private property. My mind and body are not collective resources. They are me and they are mine.
The major philosophical and religious views of the last centuries have driven a wedge between mind and body, values and actions, the intellectual and the physical. Both Buddhism and Christianity have denigrated the physical body. Fundamentalist Christians see the physical worldthe real worldas the realm of the Devil. Only the utterly non-physical world of a mythical afterlife allows us a degree of self-control and self-ownership. (Even then, our souls are finally owned by God.) In the physical world, we are pushed and pulled by devilish, fleshy forces. This view denies the possibility of self-ownership in the real world. It allows a limited self-ownership only after dying. In an extropian view, mind and body can and should work together. Ownership of my mind requires ownership of my body. And ownership of my body requires the ability to own property external to my body as an extension of me.
When I deal with other self-owners by exchanging ideas, labor, and goods voluntarily, I create and transfer private property. Private property embodies and extends self-ownership. Without private property and freedom of exchange, I cannot exercise self-ownership of mind and body.
The free market embodies the Trader Principle. In free, dynamic societies, values cannot be attained by force. If I want something, I must offer an acceptable value in exchange. (The legitimate exception is when someone chooses to give us something for nothing for their own reasons.) In a future of increased technological destructive power, it becomes even more important to move from forced transfers to voluntary trades. We need to replace conflict and parasitism with mutually beneficial exchanges. Only when an exchange is voluntary can we know that all parties involved expect to benefit.
The ideal of self-ownership explains why Extropians take positions which fit neither the left nor the right of the crude, antiquated political classification. As advocates of self-ownership, Extropians oppose both minimum wage laws and laws against pornography; we favor the right of entrepreneurs to become billionaires and the right of homosexuals to marry legally; we recognize a womans right to exercise her self-ownership to abort her pregnancy and we recognize an employers right to offer a job at any wage uncoerced by minimum wage laws; we oppose legal discrimination whether "positive" or negative; we affirm the right of each individual to use the drugs they choose, the right to end ones life when one sees fit, and the right to be cryonically suspended prior to legal death; we affirm everyones right to associate with who they please.
Is full self-ownership compatible with any role for government? Certainly government in some sense supports self-ownership. This is the sense in which actions are minimally governed by laws to protect our rights and liberty. Whether these laws need be enforced by a monolithic State is too complex an issue to discuss here. Advocates of self-ownership do not all agree on the role of the State, if any. Some think protecting self-ownership requires the State to create and enforce laws, provide national defense, and enforce rules in the case of "public goods" such as clean air. Others suspect that even these governmental functions may be better performed using voluntary exchanges in a free market by competing organizations. Several extropian thinkers have carefully explored these possibilities.
Will economic and technological forces naturally increase liberty over the coming decades? The individually empowering effects of molecular nanotechnology, distributing computing, encryption, virtual communities, improved levels of education, increased internationalization and travel, all suggest an affirmative answer. Adequately answering this question would require a book, so I will set it aside here.
What is important is that we each promote individual freedom if we wish to meet the future with a dynamic, flexible, and diverse society and economy. As we rush into the future, we gain new abilities and face new choices. We are learning new means of modifying ourselves and our environments. We will need a full recognition of the freedom to choose life extension therapies, to be suspended, to augment and modify our brains and bodies. What others feel to be natural or normal has no final say in deciding what we may do.
To live life successfully, to survive, and to flourish, personal liberty needs to be matched by personal responsibility. Responsibility strongly promotes optimal living. On a social level, liberty cannot long survive when personal responsibility is rejected.
Consider, first, how responsibility sustains liberty. A society whose members demand freedom but reject personal responsibility will soon have neither. Freedom without responsibility is license. Freedom-as-license has become a widespread aspect of our culture. It manifests itself in many ways: In desires for freedom to do anything without restraint and without cost (someone else will bear the cost); the demand for income as a right (someone else will produce the income); the expectation of guaranteed commercial success (someone else will pay the costs of government subsidies and protection from foreign and "unfair" competition).
Liberty is not license. Liberty means freedom from compulsion. It means being free to choose your own actions, make your own plans, and act on your own beliefs and values. If we wish to live a productive, rewarding life in a flourishing society we will affirm that in demanding liberty we agree to take charge of ourselves. Freedom from outside control leaves a chaotic void if not replaced by control from within.
The survival of liberty requires personal responsibility. Without this connection our political institutions become a means for the shifting of blame, for compelling others to fix our problems, and for living off the efforts of others. As responsibility declines, the political system grows increasingly oppressive and burdensome. Politicians pass more laws ordering people what to do and how to do it. Tax-funded handouts expand to support those who do not want to produce. The law increasingly allows unprincipled liability suits as the irresponsible seek an easy source of income. Government agencies take over, telling us what we can eat, what vitamins we may take, what risks we may assume, what new technologies we may use. Eventually individual choice dries up and everything not compulsory is forbidden. Every small intervention results in new problems and unforseen side effects. These lead to calls for new interventions. The road to serfdom is traversed in small steps.
If we do not take charge of ourselves we will soon find ourselves devaluing liberty. Choice can be confusing and frightening to those unused to it. It requires practice and commitment until it comes to feel natural. I remember reading about a visitor to the USA from the Soviet Union (as it was then). The writer told of how the Soviet visitor entered a drugstore looking for toothpaste. The variety of types and brands shocked him. He exclaimed how much easier it was in the Soviet Union, where the choice had been made for you. For liberty to remain attractive then, we need to foster certain qualities of character.
Practicing personal responsibility will help sustain liberty in our culture. On an individual level we benefit directly by taking responsibility. But what does responsibility involve? Which qualities of characterwhich virtuescomprise a responsible person?
The overly indulgent culture of the 1960s taught many to "let it all hang out", to "go with the flow", and to avoid commitments. While the so-called "counterculture" of the 1960s opened many minds to new ideas and ways of living, it also tended to reject many of the virtues necessary for succesful living. Fun, play, and unguided activity have important roles in our lives. But the truth is that a successful life, a life of self-ownership involves demanding virtues such as self-discipline. As we make our choices through the day we need to keep our goals and values in mind, stay focused, and resist distractions. In taking responsibility for our goals we learn the value of persistence. Most of the great achievements of the human race have required persistence and perseverance. A person who worships the moment, a culture that abandons its commitments in the face of whims and distractions, will achieve nothing.
Along with personal effort, focus, and persistence, personal responsibility involves the virtue of integrity. A person of integrity ensures that her actions conform to her values. The source of her actions lies fundamentally in her own values and goals, not in the push and pull of external circumstances. Integrity is both an ethical virtue and a psychological characteristic. An integrated personality has developed consistent and rational values. If ones values are fundamentally inconsistent or not conducive to successful living (as in an ethics of self-sacrifice or other-sacrifice), integrity becomes impossible. When ethics and reality oppose one another, one may live either successfully or ethically but not both. If one believes in an irrational ethics, seeking an optimal life will inevitably make ethical integrity impossible.
Self-ownership crucially involves owning our values. If we profess one set of values yet live according to expediency, social pressure, or the dictates of authority, we will be torn in opposing directions. Like a racehorse tethered to a stake, we will run in circles, toiling without meaningful progress.
Owning our values and living by them means exercising our intellectual and emotional autonomy. The autonomous person makes choices true to herself even in the face of external pressures. Autonomy relies not on blind rebellion or uncooperativeness but on self-direction, self-understanding, rationality, and self-control. Autonomy and rationality both require another virtue: that of honesty. Honesty means the refusal to deceive ourselves or others (except in true self-defense). Honesty means taking responsibility for the consequences of our actions. It involves a commitment to acknowledging and learning from mistakes rather than shifting blame.
Many in the modern West have come to reject traditional virtues of productiveness and creativity. Yet the self-owner recognizes the need to create values for his own life; values that may be exchanged with others to sustain himself. The self-owner, understanding the threat of the mind-body dichotomy, will not have concern only for intellectual matters. He will embrace financial responsibility. Not only will supporting oneself bring self-esteem, it will allow one to face the rapidly changing future with confidence. Besides living comfortably day by day, money will be needed to periodically learn new skills as technology drives changes in businesses and other institutions. With extended lives, we will want to take temporary retirements periodically to retrench, reflect, and retrain. Earning and saving money, along with maintaining and improving ones health, will provide the strength to glory in the tumultuous changes we can expect of the transhuman and posthuman eras. The extropian principle of Self-Ownership involves a revitalization of the virtues of productivity and creativity.
If these and other virtuous qualities of character disappear from the culture, liberty will also decline. Irresponsible people see no value in liberty and the challenges it presents. Irresponsible people will shy away from the challenges of a posthuman future, and destroy the liberty necessary to that future.
All life is self-motivated and self-directed. We can barely discern self-directed behavior in simple organisms. Single-celled organisms like the amoeba respond in supremely predictable ways to their environment. They move away from acidic environments and bright light and towards nutrition. Creatures further up the evolutionary chain show action that is increasingly generated internally. When I watch my two cats play, I see the differences in their personality. Their repertoire of behaviors is far wider and more interesting that an amoebas. (They are also more warm and furry.) Their distinct personalities are a product of their self-direction.
With the advent of human beings, with their conceptual awareness and the development of rationality and culture, we see a yet higher level of self-direction. Humans, far more than the other species we know, can be aware of the forces acting on them, both internally and externally. Humans can choose their responses. External motivators of action, whether terrain, temperature, or food sources, no longer solely determine our actions. Technology, foresight, and civilization have endowed us with flexibility in dealing with external factors. Through psychology and psychopharmacology we have achieved growing awareness of and control over internal psychological pressures. As we become posthuman, the extent of our self-direction will increase. We will both need to be more self-directing, and will have the opportunity and ability to be more self-directing.
Humans today find themselves confronted by enormously more choices than people throughout all of our history. We can choose occupations, pastimes, partners, places to live, beliefs, appearance, and so on. As we move towards a posthuman condition, the range of possible goals will continue to expand. New technologies will create new industries and call for new skills. Social change will unfold fresh ways of interacting, untried relationships, and novel economic and political structures. Intellectual developmentscientific, technological, philosophical, artisticwill expand our possible beliefs and ways of thinking. Powerful technologies will allow us to shape ourselves and our environments in unprecedented ways.
In the face of this exploding range of options, many humans have fallen into a chronic state of uncertainty. They vacillate about what to do with their lives. They feel confused about their purpose in life. They flounder around, lacking direction. Billions of humans continue to turn to religions for a sense of purpose. If we are to flourish as we move from human to posthuman, we will need to develop a strong sense of purpose. This means getting and staying clear about our goals. If we dont know where we are going, we will go nowhere. All the incredible new knowledge and technologies we are developing will have limited value if, as individuals, we cannot focus ourselves.
Since the "be here now" 1960s, self-discipline has been frowned upon in some quarters. Yet, far from being an old-fashioned quality, self-discipline is a timeless virtue. True, with superintelligent servants and nanotechnology, perhaps we will be able one day to survive without much self-discipline. But achievement, satisfaction, and self-transformation will continue to require self-control in any technological or social environment. Indeed, the more technologically-enhanced temptations enticing us, the more self-discipline we will require when we seek to achieve anything profound and significant. Self-control means keeping an eye on our destination and firmly setting aside incompatible desires and resisting distractions.
Self-discipline has sometimes received a bad reputation for good reasons: Those who want us to push for their agendas and the satisfaction of their desires may abuse the idea of self-discipline. They may persuade us to work hard for them by criticizing our resistance as "lack of self-discipline". Because of this, to achieve self-ownership, we need to combine self-discipline with rationality and self-awareness. In this context, rationality refers to a commitment to seeing the world for what it is, rather than what we or someone else wants it to be. In particular, rationality means being determined to understand ourselves. Self-awareness is the inward shining of the light of reason. Unless we know ourselvesunderstand our real desires, goals, and dreamsour self-discipline will be misapplied. Either we will discipline ourselves to advance goals decided by others, or we will discipline ourselves to pursue goals that, deep down, we may not want or which may be harmful to us.
To achieve self-direction, self-discipline needs to go hand in hand with long-term thinking. Of course "long term" will mean something different as we achieve the extended lifespans of posthumans. Even with our present one-century lifespans, long-term planning helps shape our lives and order our activities. Effective self-direction is difficult if we focus solely on the very short term. Long-term plans and lifetime goals create context within which our nearer term plans can find a place. By seeing many of our present activities as part of a plan stretching into the distant future, we foster a sense of meaning and purpose. Keeping an eye on our interests from this perspective also helps us resist those immediately rewarding activities that undermine our true interests. Seeing our lives as processes unfolding over decades and longer helps us maintain our health, wealth, and sound relationships.
Two other components of self-directionautonomous values and self-definition deserve more discussion than I can give them here. Without critical thinking about valueswithout the formation of our own values though an ongoing process of questioning, we will not be in the drivers seat of our lives. No matter how strong our self-discipline, no matter how long-term our planning, no matter how clear our sense of purpose, with uncritically held values we will fail fully to direct ourselves. Our values, to the extent to which we actually have integrity and live by them, shape our activities and how we go about them. We may possess all the other virtues of self-direction yet be guided by values passively absorbed from outside us. If our energies, our focus, our discipline, are used to further values that we have not consciously and critically evaluated, we will move ahead, but in directions potentially harmful or limiting to us. Full self-direction asks us to apply independent thinking to our values. We may end up keeping most of our current values, or we may radically revise our beliefs about good and bad, right and wrong, and what is worth pursuing. Since our values form a core part of our selves, self-direction can be fully realized only when we have challenged all our beliefs about values in the light of reason.
Self-definitionsculpting our selvesis a crucial notion in an extropian view of life. If we want to fully own ourselves, we will create and shape our own identity. We will define who we are in every aspect of our lives. Leaving it up to random forces to define who we are means relinquishing personal determination of our nature. Self-definition implies directing our personality, our behavior, our appearance, our abilities and skills. Here I am slightly overstating the ideal of self-definition: Not every aspect of our lives will be worth the effort to direct. We may be content, in less important aspects of our lives, to leave to random forces who we are and who we become. While self-owners will certainly decide on their values, their career, and their romantic partner, they may leave it up to circumstance and chance which sports or games they engage in. Even so, self-owners consciously decide which aspects of their lives are worth defining explicitly and deliberately and which do not matter. Thus, even the areas of randomness in our lives will be part of a larger extropic ordering of our selves. As we develop new technologies for modifying our bodies and minds, the range of our choice and personal influence over our identity will continue to expand.
The religious and philosophical systems of the past and present have often undercut self-esteem. They tell us that we are born in sin, due to the deeds of our forebears. They tell us that we must pay off karmic debts from past lives. They tell us that humans are evil parasites on Mother Earth. To reclaim the psychological self-ownership needed for a dynamic future of change and challenge we need to replace these ideas. To own ourselves we need a strong sense of (objectively founded) self-esteem. The self-esteem psychologist Nathaniel Branden argues that self-esteem involves two components: Self-worth and self-confidence.
Self-worth means a sense that I deserve to live, that I am worthy of life, achievement, and success. If we are to survive and flourish over decades and centuries of change, we need to uproot religious convictions and parental messages that hammer down our sense of self-worth. Only self-worth can strongly motivate us to continue living and to seek the values that make us happy and successful. If we feel unworthy of living, we will sacrifice our lives to others. Or we will lack the motivation to invest in ourselves and our future. While it is true that motivation can exist without self-esteemone may exist in order to serve a deity or a collectivethat kind of motivation will generate resentment while providing no reliable self-preservation or personal happiness. If you believe that you deserve to flourish, the prospect of an indefinitely long life of achievement and happiness will be appealing. If you believe you are not worthy of living and prospering, extended life and achievement will appear as a threat or a burden.
Self-confidence refers to a fundamental conviction that one is competent to live. Self-ownership can have little meaning in the real world without a powerful element of self-confidence. As we move towards a posthuman future of ever-increasing choice and change, confidence in oneself becomes more important. If new technologies rapidly raise new industries and tear down the old, if todays skills will be outdated tomorrow, if the cultural environment does not stay static, then we need the confidence to adapt. Life has always required the ability to adapt. As change has accelerated, we not only need to learn to adapt quickly, we need to anticipate change. Seeing how technology, the economy, and the culture are changing, we need the confidence to let go of what we are used to and prepare for what is coming. Our keywords here: Rethink, retrain, reevaluate.
Each of us feels confident in particular areas of life. You might feel confident writing a computer program. Another feels confident standing on stage. Another feels confident at negotiating. But you might lack confidence in changing a diaper, replacing your computers hard drive, or singing in tune. We cannot help but lack competence in numerous areas. Yet we can develop a solid self-confidence in living. Self-confidence means not confidence in specific areas, but a fundamental conviction that I am competent to live. I may lack a skill or ability needed to get a particular job or to solve a relationship difficulty, but I feel confident that I can acquire those skills. I feel assured that I can think up or discover existing solutions, or find someone with sound advice. We have all known people of both extremes on the self-confidence spectrum. When faced with learning a totally new skill, some will cry, shake, or back off, while others will smile, rub their hands, and jump in.
Self-owners do not expect their future to be created by others, whether gods, governments, or gurus. Self-owners display confidence in their own ability to create the future they want. Self-confidence generates persistence by giving us the power to keep trying in the face of resistance and setbacks. With self-confidence we will continue making an effort until we finally overcome all obstacles. Self-worth bonded to self-confidence forms a powerful core of self-esteem. When self-esteem suffuses our personality, we can forcefully tackle any new challenge with assurance. The future, with all its unknowns, looks like an open space of grand possibilities, not a vast seething pool of danger.
In our rebellious youth, seeing the foolishness in the world, we thought we could do better. We may have laughed at authority figures, or resented them, or criticized them. Every intellectually vigorous youngster strives to form a worldview better than the obviously flawed ones around them. As rebellious and questioning youth, we may have reacted with suspicion to the term "respect". Perhaps we still do. I remember the e-mail list comments of a teenage enthusiast of the ideas expounded by extropians. The subject of respect came up. This fellow pounced on the word, dismissing the idea, suggesting that it was a bad thing unsuited to independent thinkers.
When taken in one sensea sense commonly used in the past"respect" can indeed imply behavior unsuited to a self-guided, free-thinking person. This is not the kind of respect I am advocating. This is the kind of respect found in admonishments to "respect your elders" without any context. Which elders? Why respect them? Respect them no matter what they say or do? Respect becomes unhealthy when it implies a blanket acceptance of the ways and beliefs of others and a denigration of our own. If respect means acquiescing to the judgment of others while denying the value of our own judgment, it will undermine cognitive and ethical self-ownership.
Respect for others, in the sense I intend, does not mean deference to persons of status without regard to our personal evaluation of them. We find that kind of deferential respect woven into the cultures of the past. Woman respected men, serfs respected feudal lords, commoners respected nobility, slaves respected mastersor else!
What kind of respect for others will suit us to becoming posthuman? How does respect for others complement self-respect, self-esteem, self-ownership? Respect for others follows from recognizing that just as self-ownership, self-direction, personal freedom, and personal responsibility are good for us, so are they good for others. It is a recognition of the benefits of appreciating others for their abilities and potentialities.
Rational respect must be contextual: we would be foolish to grant anyone absolute respect, irrespective of their demonstrated values. Some individuals may turn out to deserve no respect or, far more likely, respect sharply limited to specific domains. Our prejudices sometimes lead us to withhold respect even before we know anything significant about a person. Perhaps we know Jerry holds political views we find distasteful. We may lose all respect for him. Yet, rationally we should not withdraw respect hastily or totally. Perhaps on further acquaintance, Jerry has many fine qualities, his political views being in error but not proving some fatal, fixed moral flaw.
Respect is rational when it recognizes reality and when it relates to our own interests. This sensitivity to reality explains why respect should be contextual. If our feeling or expression of respect does not change when evidence shows that the grounds for that respect have changed, then we are blinding ourselves to the real world. We should recognize that rationality also gives us reasons for extending initial respect to unknown persons as well as reasons to maintain some respect even when the behavior or character of others is lacking. Why is this?
Sensitivity to reality means treating things and people differently depending on their differences in reality. We kick a stone or pick a flower casually, but we hurt an animal only with strong reasons, and we kill humans only in extreme situations. Initial and underlying respect for others, others who we may not know, results from recognizing that they too are intelligent, sensitive, capable beings. Healthy individuals understand this, while psychopaths treat persons as non-persons. Bearing in mind the nature of persons, we will not withhold or lose all respect for someone because of some particular infraction, some disagreement, or superficial difference in culture, belief, gender, or race. Emotionally and intellectually advanced humansthose on their way to becoming psychologically posthumanhave refined their emotional responses. Their vision pierces emotional fogging of perception, keeping differences and dislikes in proportion. They continue to recognize, appreciate, and respect the basic nature, abilities, and potential of persons.
A hard-core rationalist will, quite reasonably, ask: Surely I can recognize and acknowledge the nature of persons as intelligent, sensitive, self-owning creatures, yet consciously set that aside if it gets in the way of my interests? It may be psychopathic to be incapable of appreciating the nature of other persons, but is it not healthy to recognize but ignore their nature if it is to my advantage?
The question is well put since, as philosophers since Hume have insisted, you cannot derive an "ought" from an "is". That is, the fact that things are a certain way (persons have a particular nature) does not in itself prove that we ought to treat them a particular way. While a full answer to this question would require a lengthy excursion into psychology, my brief answer is that treating others with respect is rational because recognizing the nature of others will be to our benefit. We will treat others with respect because we want to live our lives optimally. By treating others with respect we help to foster a culture of respect. By treating others with respect we engender respect in return. Other people, even those with whom we have differences, are potential benefactors. Giving as much respect as is compatible with protection of our interests will maximize cooperation and mutual benevolence. We will be better placed to benefit from one anothers expertise, while keeping our differences in perspective.
How do we go about respecting the self-ownership of othersphysically, emotionally, intellectually? Most of us know how to do this, even if we do not always do so in practice. Briefly, then, I suggest that encouraging an extropian culture of respect involves civility, sensitivity, generosity, effective communication, honesty, and recognizing others rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and refraining from treating others purely as means to our ends. Civility, sensitivity, and generosity together comprise benevolence. Civility oils the cogs of daily discourse, helping us to listen to and enjoy one another. It is one of the old-fashioned virtues the decline of which even an extropian futurist can lament. Sensitivity means not a soft-headed, dewy-eyed emotional gushiness, but an alert awareness of the feelings, needs, and wants of others. Generosity means not a duty to give to all and sundry, but a non-grudging willingness to help when appropriate and reasonable, and a joy in the well-being of others.
Effective communication overlaps with the components of benevolence. To communicate our ideas and wants effectively to others, and to learn what others want from us, we need to practice sensitivity to the words and body language of others. Respectful communication involves really listening. Not just waiting for someone to finish so we can make our point. It involves looking for the value in what others say, rather than only latching onto their weak points and poor expression. It means approaching communications as learning experiences, not as combat, not as point-scoring, not as domination.
Both effective communication in particular and respect in general require a high degree of honesty. Unlike absolutist moral philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, I do not see truth-telling and honesty as iron laws, never to be broken. Lying, deceit, and dishonesty, though generally detrimental to healthy living based on long-term thinking, can have a place. These are generally limited to self-protection in situations where untruth is a legitimate means of protecting oneself from unwarranted violation by others. Dealing with others honestly means recognizing that others have their own interests, goals, and desires. It means dealing with them by voluntary exchange of real values rather than by deceit, fraud, and subterfuge. Honesty allows us to put all our energies into creating and achieving, rather than into inventing and sustaining the false reality created by lies.
On its most basic level, respecting others means respecting their rights. Here I do not mean all the rights demanded today, including rights to force others to provide for us, subsidize us, or behave the way we want. I mean rights to life, to private property, and to voluntary exchange. Although crucial to respect for others, recognizing their rights cannot be the whole story. Merely refraining from violating rights is not enough to build and sustain a strong culture of respect and self-ownership. As I have argued above, rational respect involves more than hands-off. It asks of us a number of virtues and a keen awareness of the reality of others. In return, respect can deliver to us personal relationships and a culture friendly to our personal survival and well-being. Respect for others will in the future continue to have the value for us that it has had in the past. The major difference is that an extropian culture can best flourish with a rational, context-sensitive respect, not a traditional, unquestioning, blind respect.
Just as freedom without responsibility is license, self-ownership without respect for others is adolescent and dominating. If we will not recognize self-ownership for others, why should we expect it to be recognized and respected in us? Extropians seek neither to rule others nor to be ruled by others. The ideal is a culture of self-owners who recognize and celebrate one anothers self-ownership.
Humanity is still growing up. To varying degrees, depending on our culture and individual development, we still resist full self-ownership. Sometimes we think independently; other times we ignore the sovereignty of our own mind in favor of an easy deference to the minds of others. We claim to want individual freedom, yet we support political and economic systems characterized by coercion and centralization. We respond positively to the idea of personal responsibility, yet ignore it when it seems inconvenient or difficult. We affirm self-direction as a desirable, modern ideal, yet we often let ourselves drift, or yield direction to external forces. Excepting believers in original sin, we recognize the value of self-esteem, yet so many of us have too little of it. We pay verbal homage to the notion of respect for others, yet we often forget what this involves.
As our technology matures at an accelerating pace, we need to keep pace psychologically. If the gap between technological and psychological progress grows too large, we will face threats to our well-being. Becoming posthuman calls for a co-evolution of technology and human nature. Only when psychological maturity accompanies technological augmentation can we be assured that posthumans will survive and flourish as never before in the future world. By encouraging an extropic culture of self-ownership we will foster a vital aspect of posthumanity.
Randy Barnett, "Pursuing Justice in a Free Society: Part OnePower vs. Liberty." Criminal Justice Ethics (Summer/Fall 1985); "Pursuing Justice in a Free Society: Part TwoCrime and the Legal Order." Criminal Justice Ethics (Winter/Spring 1986).
Bruce Benson, The Enterprise of Law. (San Francisco: Pacific Research Institute, 1990.)
"Enforcement of Property Rights in Primitive Societies: Law Without Government." Journal of Libertarian Studies 9 (Winter 1989).
Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life.
Nathaniel Branden, If You Could Hear What I Cannot Say.
Nathaniel Branden, Taking Responsibility.
Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.
Gregory Burch, http://users.aol.com/gburch1/exlaw.html
Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Suzette Haden Elgin, The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense.
David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom, 2nd Edition. (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1989.)
"Private Creation and Enforcement of Law: A Historical Case." Journal of Legal Studies 8 (March 1979).
David Kelley, Unrugged Individualism: The Selfish Basis of Benevolence. (Institute for Objectivist Studies, New York, 1996.)
Max More, "Liberty and Responsibility: Inseparable Ideals." The Freeman, July 1996.
Max More, "Order Without Orderers", Extropy #7 (vol.3 no.1, Spring 1991)
Max More, "Pan-Critical Rationalism: An Extropic Metacontext for Memetic Change", EXTRO1 Conference Proceedings, 1994.
T.O Morrow, "Privately Produced Law." Extropy #7 (vol.3, no.1, Winter/Spring 1991).
George H. Smith, "Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market", Journal of Libertarian Studies Vol.3 No.4 (1979): 405-426.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness.
My thanks for comments to Gregory Burch, Wade Cherrington, and Peter Voss.


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A 16-year-old girl is dead and her two sisters are fighting for their lives after a fire tore through their Brooklyn house — which had no working smoke detector, fire officials said.
The two-alarm blaze broke out in the three-story East 8th Street home in Prospect Park South at 5:30 a.m. Friday and quickly spread, trapping the sisters on the top floor.
Firefighters found Jasmine Guillaume and her two sisters, Jaima and Kareen Jumelle, both in their 20s, unconscious inside a locked bathroom where the women had tried to escape the flames, one firefighter said.
Guillaume was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where she died. The sisters, both in their 20s, were listed in critical condition after one was taken to New York Hospital and the other to Kings County Hospital.
Brooklyn City Councilman Mathieu Eugene said the victims all belong to the same Brooklyn parish he attends, Holy Innocents Roman Catholic Church.
"I know them very well," said Eugene, who described the sisters as "very quiet kids" and their mother as "a hardworking, quiet lady who's doing the best she can to raise them."
The victims' mother, aged 57, was hospitalized with minor injuries, as was a 59-year-old aunt, fire officials said.
Eugene called the fire tragic — "especially . . . [as] everyone is getting ready for the holy season."
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the fire marshal, but firefighters at the scene said the home had no working fire detectors — which are required by law.
Several distraught people gathered outside the damaged house on Friday as news of the fire's toll spread — the second fatal fire in a span of seven hours in which a working smoke alarm might have saved a family from devastation.
Two brothers died Thursday night when their Bronx apartment went up in flames because of carelessly discarded smoking materials, officials said. The building on Grand Concourse caught fire at 10:45 p.m. and both brothers later succumbed to their injuries at area hospitals. The apartment had no working smoke detectors, officials said.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Captain Underpants Outreach Pop-up is giant interactive traveling pop- up book featuring Dav Pilkey's The Adventures of Captain Underpants. It was deployed to area schools in February 2016. So far this year 11 schools and 8 libraries have hosted the pop-up for one-week visits. An average of 300 students per school (grades K - 6) engage the pop-up in interactions that span curriculum areas, facilitated by their classroom teachers or librarian. Feedback from educators and students has been overwhelmingly positive, demonstrating both the need and the desire for new and engaging experiences around literature.
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Okay, so I haven't timed my posts just right. Because of that, you'll be seeing yet another finished knitting project at some point in the next week or so! I like to space these babies out between sewing projects, but what can you do? Between travel and the holidays, I made much more progress on my knitting than my sewing. But it's okay – I am pretty psyched to have added another warm wool cardigan to my wardrobe arsenal because, brrrr, it's cold out there!
This is the Agatha cardigan by, you guessed it, Andi Satterlund. I have loved this design long before I actively took up knitting. So beautiful and intricate. Ravelry tells me I added it to my queue in September 2013, close to a year before I knitted my first ever cardigan. I made a few mistakes with this one, but since I'm still in "I turned that string into a thing!" mode I'm pleased with it. I started this around Thanksgiving, slowed down a bit over the holidays, and finally finished in January. Still playing catch-up with project posts, t'would seem.
I first wore this cardigan to work and then for dinner at Benihana in midtown – gotta look put together for my hibachi shrimp!


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Saturday, June 4, 2011
2-3pm Eastern US
1-2pm Central US
12-1pm Mountain US
11am-12pm Pacific US
Join us for the next episode of My Society, a new Internet radio show on Blog talk Radio presented by the Federation of Genealogical Societies on Saturday, June 4, 2011 starting at 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, 12pm Mountain and 11am Pacific when this week we'll be discussing: A Society on the Grow.
Janet Hovorka received a B.A. in Ancient Near Eastern History and a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from BYU. She accepted teaching and library positions at BYU and Salt Lake Community College before having her three wonderful children. She and her husband Kim Hovorka own Generation Maps (http://www.generationmaps.com), an online genealogy chart printing service. Janet writes The Chart Chick blog (http://www.thechartchick.com), she is currently serving as President of the Utah Genealogical Association and has presented 100s of lectures all over the country to help people find out more about their family's history.
Christy Fillerup is the director of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and a member of the board of directors for the Utah Genealogical Association. She developed a passion for history in high school and it wasn't long before a passion for history became a passion for family history. Christy founded the Transitional Genealogists group in 2007 to help genealogists aspiring to become professionals. The group has benefited greatly from the mentorship of many established professionals. Christy is a graduate of the English track at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies as well as the ProGen study group. She edited Crossroads magazine from June 2010 to June 2011 and will remain a feature columnist.
- Utah Genealogical Association
- Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy
- UGA Blog
- UGA Facebook Page
- UGA Twitter Page
Society Spotlight
My Society will also feature a member society of FGS during the broadcast.
Please join us for great conversation and an exchange of ideas concerning genealogy societies every Saturday afternoon!


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SPRINGFIELD — Leading Democrats in the General Assembly all but conceded Thursday that despite their opposition Gov. James Thompson`s five-year bonding program for his ``Build Illinois`` project will survive the legislative wars of the last days of the spring session.
Senate President Philip Rock (D., Oak Park) promised he still would push for a 10-year program that would not require state bonding power for the plan but would fund the $1.3 billion building program on a ``pay-as-you-go`` basis. But Judith Erwin, Rock`s press secretary, acknowledged that Rock is the only one of the four legislative leaders who is pushing the pay-as-you-go plan.


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Located between Los Angeles and Orange County, Downtown Long Beach is at the center of Southern California business. A burgeoning urban environment, Downtown Long Beach features a waterfront business harbor, a historic architectural district, and a cultural arts scene. To learn more about the impressive progress being made in Downtown and how you can be part of the success, contact the DLBA today.
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Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now
This PCB uses a 555 timer to make an LED "breathe" using pulse width modulation (PWM). I had a few of these boards fabricated using Seeed Studio's Fusion PCB service. Here is a photo of the finished boards: pic.twitter.com/7h6vfXW01Y


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Wordpress front end avatar upload pluginPekerjaan
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I have new twitter and instagram accounts called (@JuveAddicts). I post everything about Juventus Football club. I called it @JuveAddicts because...post everything about Juventus Football club. I called it @JuveAddicts because simply Juve fans can't get enough of Juventus. I need a logo for the accounts to use it as an avatar and header in my account
Overall Requirement – A talking avatar (3D rigged model) that is animated from a user's voice recording (not real time) that can then be audio/vid recorded, saved and shared (optional) as an audible video to social media I have a cartoon character fully rigged model known as Pit Mouse [login untuk melihat URL] The idea is to let users install the Android
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My site has a Wordpress-based social network that has a preexisting profile system. All its profile functions are controlled by a plugin called "Wordpress Symposium." This software isn't the most efficient, as it produces far too many calls for simple processes like viewing profiles. I'm keen to get away from it with fresh, clean PHP that works within
Hello, I need to build an avatar for a character that will have an account on social media. The character will be posting expressions and these should be on a template that will relate to the avatar and the character's story - final deliverable should be in a format that can be uploaded as a profile pic or as a pic on social media (Twitter, Instagram
...The pages we need are following: front page/login page ( This should be the first page when opening the app. It should have a Login Screen [as well through Facebook] and a register, forgot password field.) search function site (user needs to enter what product(s) he wants and where its from) profile page with avatar, rating, and personal informations
Hello, I am looking for initial branding help. I would like a website banner/social media banner made as well as a smaller image to be used as an avatar/logo. Thanks.
...The application should be able to show the 3D model dressed in a realistic manner with high quality. In addition, a heat map view should show how well a dress fits the given avatar. The cloth should be as realistic as possible. Functions to change the dress should also be added. The application should ideally also contain multiple backgrounds. Reference
Logo for my travel blog website. I need a 3d avatar picture in my logo. Illustrator experience are welcome. U need to provide svg plus png plus jpeg files.
The other example of what I am looking for can be found here: [login untuk melihat URL] I prefer the above because of the animation of the moves
I want a custom logo to use with my game tag "ted1ba1r" (teddy bair basically) because my last name it bair I use a bear theme avatar but want a custom logo that I can use to customise PS4 and other stuff plus use on a site in the future.
I want to create an art that can be used both as avatar and a whole piece. The character in question is visor in quake champions in spartan armor. More details if you're interested.
Hi Rajib M., Please create site from psd. we will take $111 for HTML and $150 for develo...$111 for HTML and $150 for development admin will be change all images and content from admin panel price $111 + $150 = $261 and also admin can change the menu text also User Avatar and when any user fill up those two form then admin can received the mail also
...the script able to read a date in a line of text in a cell? See cell I14. If column "I8" has "Expiry" added in after "Excavator" could the script read I14 and the text at the end "EXP Aug 21"? Basically could the script be altered to include Excavtor ticket EXP Sep 18? Could this then be set so to read J14 similarly and any columns added th...
I need an Android app. I would like it designed and built.
I need some graphic design. To make avatar chracter for my self
Design 12 Avatar Characters According to The Style and guide that i will give you. Basically the designs must best represent the Zodiac they stand for.
I want to change the design of (attached homepage) from listing style with images. To icon avatar style (like the attached example avtar icons). I need the icons to represent the buttons. It should has a creative touch. Logo is also attached. It is a Water Ordering App that allow customers to order different type/services of water. The icons should
I have 10 pictures of prople, need to create 10 cartoon characters, so each person is digitised for digital avatar.
I have a channel where I will be posting recruiting videos for kids wanting to play college baseball. I need artwork created such as the channel banner and an avatar created.
I'm looking for a modeler and animator who can make a small animation for a campaign I'm gonna be launching a mobile app....can test your model in Unity and pack it as a .unitypackage). - Texturing - Custom animation (The animation we will need is a 10 to 15 seconds animation in a loop about the avatar dancing we will provide the video for reference).
I'm looking for a modeler and animator who can make a small animation for a campaign I'm gonna be launching a mobile app....can test your model in Unity and pack it as a .unitypackage). - Texturing - Custom animation (The animation we will need is a 10 to 15 seconds animation in a loop about the avatar dancing we will provide the video for reference).
I'm looking to revamp my resume, and I'd like to try using an avatar/illustration of myself in this new edition. I'm pretty advanced in Adobe Creative Suite, but have never done this before, and it will take me much more time than I currently have to devote to redesigning my resume.
...new I mean extremely new but I feel like it would be worth it to invest in some really good channel art objects. What I need is the following: youtube/twitch banner, channel avatar, stream package. That's what I can think of at the time being. I need the stuff delivered ASAP so if you have experience in the area and feel like you're the right person for
...new I mean extremely new but I feel like it would be worth it to invest in some really good channel art objects. What I need is the following: youtube/twitch banner, channel avatar, stream package. That's what I can think of at the time being. I need the stuff delivered ASAP so if you have experience in the area and feel like you're the right person for
...la web pero en versión APP. Como dificultad cada usuario que haga login o se registre tendra la opción de configurarse un avatar que tambien pasaremos los diseños, tendrá unas 20 conbinaciones. Necesario módulo a medida, o plugin para este desarroyo....
I need a cartoonist for a project on my business. Basically I need around 10 cartoons where I appear with different facial and physical expressions.
I am building a web pro...[login untuk melihat URL] Additionally, I need to control an avatar (see [login untuk melihat URL]) to move freely in this world but only on the ground of the island surrounding the building. The avatar must hover little distance above the ground and cannot move into the sea part.
Boa noite. Faço vídeos institucionais e gostaria da confecção de um pequeno vídeo (avatar/animação) para divulgação do meu trabalho, seria algo animado para ilustrar meu trabalho
...an app that is being developed. Idea is as below - 1. The "avatar" (2D animation) will be speaking to the person watching the video 2. There will be a pre-defined 2 way script. The "Avatar" will have it's part of script, which will be "spoken" (thus the lip movement then) and then the avatar will remain "silent", as if listening...
I would like a twitter profile picture similar to this image but a lot better looking :) Cartoon or futuristic involving bitcoin and other cryptocurrency would be a bonus
...milestone. Additional details and specifications: 1) Settings page - change password, email, avatar. 2) Profile (candidate) - standard set of information as every freelancer site - skills, experience, reviews, portfolio, ability to upload images for the portfolio, avatar and probably few more fields. 3) Profile (employer) - again, the standard set of information
Dear ART LAND DESIGN Hello im Taisei i wanna make a Video for intoroduce our ...intoroduce our company Our company is making a platform of the Earth on Virtual Reality I felt that you have the ability to make that introduction video 1, Create 3D moving human avatar Like 『3D Beach Animation』that u made it Talk in detail later can u do it ??
...want a flat single colour logo. The logo name is to be: Yurich Hunt Logo is to be used on Social media, so the words over two lines rather than one as a social media avatar. The account will be posting pictures of cars, watches and women - so happy for those to be in silhouette as part of the logo. And a skull would be cool. Logo is to
We...simple app idea with 3d models in it. This will be an app for brides getting married soon to see their bridal dress on their body type. The app will have both customizable avatar to look like the brides body and a customizable dress that will be placed on the bride. Read attached document for more clarifications Start your proposal with 'Bride'
...create a profile (Avatar, Country, hobbies). After users create their profile they will be given a list of party rooms(which are voice chats with a limit of 10 people per room) with a max of 15 rooms. There will be in app purchase of (Hosting parties, private rooms). There will be no facetime or camera capabilities only can modify avatar. Each Party room


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Entertainment » Books
1 thru 10 of 884 Stories
Omarosa in New Book: I Saw Trump's Racism 'With My Own Eyes'
Former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman claims in a new book that there are tapes of President Donald Trump using racial slurs and that she saw him behaving "like a dog off the leash" at numerous events.
Justin Timberlake Book Coming in October
Justin Timberlake is looking back.
Hemingway Story from 1956 Published for First Time
The themes and trappings are familiar for an Ernest Hemingway narrative: Paris, wartime, talk of books and wine and the scars of battle.
Lonely Planet Launches First Cruising Guidebooks
The travel publisher Lonely Planet has launched its first guidebooks to cruising.
Black Man Accuses Sean Spicer of Hurling Racial Slur at Him
A black man yelled at former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in a bookstore and accused Spicer of calling him a racial slur when they were students at a prep school decades ago.
Unpublished Parts of Malcolm X's Autobiography Auctioned Off
For decades, scholars have wanted to get a closer look at unpublished sections of a towering 20th century book, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," including cut chapters that may have contained some of his most explosive thoughts.
Former Trump Aide Omarosa has 'Explosive' Book Coming
Former President Donald Trump aide and "Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault Newman has a memoir coming that her publisher calls "explosive" and "jaw-dropping."
Chris Christie to 'Set Record Straight' in 'Let Me Finish'
Chris Christie has a book coming out next year and he doesn't plan on holding back.
APNewsBreak: Author John Irving Wins Literary Peace Award
The author of novels such as "The World According to Garp" and "The Cider House Rules" that examine the complexities of sexual differences and other social issues is this year's winner of a lifetime achievement award.
Book Remembers Devastating 1973 Fire at Gay New Orleans Bar
On Sunday June 24, 1973, dozens of patrons had gathered at the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans when an arsonist set fire to the building.
1 thru 10 of 884 Stories


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A New York-based trucking company has agreed to pay $325,000 to settle claims that it failed to pay the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection fees covering the costs of handling and transporting oil and other hazardous wastes within the state.
Massachusetts' Hazardous Waste Management Act requires all hazardous waste transporters to pay quarterly transporter fees based on the quantity of hazardous waste transported.
According to the consent judgment, entered in Suffolk Superior Court, Price Trucking Company failed to pay more than $191,000 in hazardous waste transporter fees to the MassDEP in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Price also allegedly failed to submit reports tracking the volume of transported hazardous waste between July 2009 and January 2010, exposing it to up to $175,000 in penalties.
The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office filed a complaint against the company in November 2011. According to the lawsuit, Price Trucking fell behind in its quarterly hazardous waste transporter fee payments in late 2008 and continued to fail to make the required payments. As a result, MassDEP suspended Price Trucking's transporter license in January 2010.
The license has since expired and Price Trucking no longer operates as a hazardous waste transporter in Massachusetts.


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Jay-Z made his first public appearance since becoming a first-time dad on Wednesday (18Jan12) to celebrate the grand reopening of his New York sports bar.
The Empire State of Mind hitmaker, who welcomed daughter Blue Ivy with wife Beyonce earlier this month (07Jan12), stepped out solo for the big launch of Manhattan's 40/40 Club, unveiling the hotspot's new renovations.
The hip-hop superstar was joined by a slew of his celebrity pals, among them singer Ashanti, rap mogul Russell Simmons, director Spike Lee, record producer Irv Gotti, rapper Wale, The Roots star ?uestlove and billionaire Warren Buffett.
Jay-Z remained notoriously mum on the red carpet and simply smiled to reporters as he dashed inside, but his guests were thrilled to show their support.
Wale told MTV, "We here at the reopening of the 40/40; we about to have a couple of drinks, a lot of beautiful women, New York City, the new joint - you already know."
And Foolish singer Ashanti was just as excited, tweeting, "Hov (Jay-Z) always has big parties, so I'm definitely looking forward to going inside and mingling and jingling."


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301 Leighton Drive
Terrell, TX 75160
- $175,000
- 3 Beds
- 2 Baths
- 1,524 SqFt
- 0.25 Acres
Open House Dates
Located on a large corner lot, just one block from Griffith Avenue, lined with beautiful historic homes on expansive lawns! Many updates to this home! Open dining to living room with laminate wood flooring and a woodburning fireplace. The kitchen is light and bright with a pass-thru window perfect for outdoor functions. Stainless steel double oven by Electrolux, recently replaced cooktop and vent hood and quartz counter tops! Large master bedroom with painted shiplap wall, nice bath with recent tile and large walk in closet. Linen closet in hall, as well as an enormous utility room with wall to wall pantry storage area. The backyard is great for entertaining with a huge covered patio, tall board on board stained wood fence with only views of tall mature trees! There is a small storage shed great for lawn equipment and a large one converted into a 2 level guest cottage, workshop or would make a great media/game room! Parking pad with enough room for 4 cars!
Sharon QuistPark Cities Office
6025 Luther Ln
Dallas , TX 75225
Direct (214)695-9595
Additional Property Details
Lot & Land
Results received from this calculator are designed for comparative purposes only, and accuracy is not guaranteed.
4 Beds • 3 Baths • 2,443 Sq Ft
3 Beds • 2.1 Baths • 1,996 Sq Ft
116 Leighton Drive Terrell, TX 75160
3 Beds • 1.1 Baths • 1,641 Sq Ft
111 Leighton Drive Terrell, TX 75160
4 Beds • 1.1 Baths • 1,350 Sq Ft
3 Beds • 1.1 Baths • 1,698 Sq Ft
3 Beds • 2 Baths • 1,708 Sq Ft


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A documentary made by MedTv during 1998 about the Feylis situtaion during the 70´s and 80´s.It is a tragic tale about how the Feylis were forcibly thrown out of Iraq under the pretext of them being Iranian.
It is a tale about how the Baath killed and took many hostages (none of them were seen again) and how they plundered the feylis wealth.
A short film about Feylis situation in post saddam era.
Pictures of Feyli hostages.


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This ambitious strategy - Delivering a Golden Legacy: a growth strategy for inbound tourism 2012-2020 (PDF, 4.53MB) - sets out what Britain can do to ensure that international tourism delivers the largest economic benefit possible and how marketing and policy objectives can be aligned. It aims to attract 40 million international visitors a year, spending £31.5 billion, by 2020.
We also conducted a major piece of work, producing assessments of Britain's competitive position in each of our 21 priority markets − identifying opportunities for and barriers to growth.
This work identified four key elements which together are drivers of future success:
- Build on Britain's image
- Increase distribution through the travel trade
- Broaden the product offering and make it easier to visit Britain by improving Britain's visa process
- Increasing aviation capacity to promote new air routes, particularly from emerging markets
None of this is within the gift of any single organisation. This is a strategy for Britain – with the travel industry, government departments and agencies united behind a clear long-term ambition for growth.
Our aim is to work in partnership, so that organisations across the public and private sectors can align to deliver tourism's full economic growth potential over the remainder of this decade.
The private sector has the key role to play. The tourism industry is typically described as fragmented − there are 200,000 small and medium-sized tourism businesses and a host of sectorial interests in tourism. Yet the private sector already provides significant support to the marketing of Britain overseas − investing £12.7 million in VisitBritain's four-year marketing programme from April 2015-March 2016.
The GREAT Britain campaign has also seen us working much more strategically with other public diplomacy partners (including the FCO, Department for International Trade and British Council). In addition, the campaign has shown the role that non-tourism businesses can play in shaping Britain's image around the world – and the impact that this has on tourism and investment decisions.
This strategy sets out an ambitious goal for Britain. It will require an even greater level of cooperation across Government, the UK and overseas tourism industries and the national tourist boards in order to ensure that Britain is fit to compete and succeed in the global race for tourism.


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Aug 30, 2012 0
CheapOair Kicks Off "Travel the World For Less" Brand Campaign In The Big Apple
Starting this week, leading online travel agency CheapOair introduces the Big Apple to its new "Travel the World for Less" campaign. This brand initiative is blitzing the company's home market of New York City, targeting passionate global travelers and showing them that aspirational trips and vacations can be affordable.
The campaign showcases CheapOair's sense of humor, featuring fun taglines like "Cheap Flights make it easy to say 'Phuket… Let's Travel'" and "Cheap Flights make it easy to say 'What the Helsinki… Let's Travel.'" These messages and others appear across popular New York City transportation routes including subways, buses, and airport shuttles.
In addition to advertising with travel related channels, CheapOair is using TV, radio, and print to expand their extensive customer base in the New York market.


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Nightmare Before Christmas: ReAction Figure: Sally
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this. | See similar products
Sally Action Figure, in retro Kenner style!
- More Below…
Product Description
- Cat No.
- 3051016
- 849803038632
- Genres
- Film & TV
- Fantasy
- Height
- 9.5cm (3.8in)
- Manufacturer
- Funko
- Material
- Plastic
- Packaging
- Blister Pack
- Series
- Sally
- Nightmare Before Christmas
- Types
- Action Figures
- Toys
- Universe
- Nightmare Before Christmas
Sally Action Figure, in retro Kenner style!
Poseable 3 3/4-inch ReAction figure from The Nightmare Before Christmas! Features 5 points of articulation, just like the classic Kenner action figures of the 1970s and 1980s!
Standing 3 3/4-inches tall, this articulated figure of Sally is the perfect size for desk display at work or at home. The Nightmare Before Christmas Sally ReAction Retro Action Figure from Super7 and Funko comes with spoon and picnic basket accessories.
It makes an awesome collectible for any fan of the Tim Burton classic!
Customer Reviews
There aren't any reviews published for this product yet, why not be the first to write one?Write your own review.


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Twilight Theme for Emacs!
Recently I've been returning to my Unix heritage and using Emacs as my day to day editor. Its been quite an enlightening journey returning to such a powerful editor with its limitless customization and features (probably worthy of a whole separate post), although one things I do miss from TextMate are the colour themes used for syntax highlighting. Emacs has a package called color-theme which can be used to customize font faces/colours however in comparison to the styled themes TextMate offers, most of default ones available don't quite compare.
In TextMate I used the Twilight theme quite often, so, after examining the color-theme package format, I've ported across the Twilight theme to Emacs, and have released it as a small project on GitHub. Its definitely a work in progress, most of the colours within Ruby mode are working as expected, but please feel free to improve anything that needs some fine tuning (eg. Rails keywords, and particularly non-Ruby modes such as dired, ERB, SCM, etc). Patches are most certainly welcome.


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ADDISON – A recent Roosevelt University graduate and Addison resident will be featured on a reality television show this fall, along with the advertising agency she's been interning for.
"The pressure was exciting," said 22-year-old Ilma Gjini.
The Monogram Group, where she's been an intern since January, will be featured on an upcoming episode of AMC's "The Pitch." The reality show gives two advertising agencies one week to develop a campaign for the same client, and the client chooses the idea they like best.
"During that week, you really didn't think about that you were going to be on a show," Gjini said.
Even as an unpaid intern, Gjini was putting in late nights and early mornings for a week in April with the small agency in order to develop a winning campaign for Fuller Brush, Co.
While she admits it was difficult, she doesn't see advertising as work. Two years ago, Gjini changed her major half-way through college from Education to Integrated Marketing Communications.
"I caught myself not being that passionate," she said about her education classes.
Gjini saw how much her classmates loved their studies and knew she needed to find a field that gave her the same feeling. She picked up a list of majors Roosevelt offered and crossed them out one-by-one.
After taking a marketing course, Gjini knew she was in the right place. She wanted to do her homework and projects; they didn't feel like work to her.
Even though Gjini graduated in May, she's continued her unpaid internship with Monogram.
"The experience I'm getting is a lot more important than if I'm getting paid or not," Gjini said.
She also has taken on a new role as a social media coordinator. Gjini began as a creative intern, but when the agency filmed for "The Pitch," she took on the role of promoting the upcoming appearance.
Gjini organized a watch party contest for student chapters of the American Advertising Federation. Participating chapters will share Vines, photos and tweets to win $1,500 for first place and $500 for second place.
"As my boss kind of put it, we're kind of our biggest client right now," Gjini said.
Her skills have worked on her family – they now watch "The Pitch" every week in preparation for Gjini's appearance. She thinks they might even be more excited than she is.
Gjini said she has also felt a lot of support from her friends and the Roosevelt community. She never expected so many people would be interested in her television debut.
The entire experience has also changed Gjini's career goals. Where she used to aspire to work at a large agency, she's gotten the chance to work on all aspects at a project with The Monogram Group's small staff.
"I see the power that a small agency can do," Gjini said.
The Monogram Group and Gjini will be featured on "The Pitch" Oct. 3 at 10 p.m. While Gjini knows who won – even though she can't tell anyone – she is still anxious to see how the entire episode turns out.


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Intermix is located at 977 N Pacific Hwy, Woodburn, OR. This business specializes in Fund Transfer Services.
Intermix can be found at N Pacific Hwy 975. The following is offered: Fund Transfer Services. The entry is present with us since Sep 9, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Woodburn there are 3 other Fund Transfer Services. An overview can be found here.


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Hit the "ON" button! Turn the dials! Change the channel, tune in tonight at 10 pm for Local Live!
This week we have Rikavista, an Austin based Alt/Indie rock band! Show them some support and tune your radios to 91.7 FM or your TVs to Dorm channel 15, antenna 29.1 to catch Local Live!