From: John Stick (johnstick@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Jan 07 2004 - 18:57:47 MST
This is surely wrong. Even the non-uploaded, unaugmented me can think
of dozens of projects that would consume more than a solar system's
worth of resources. For starters, I would like a hundred planets so I
can test the punctuated equilibrium account of evolution. (You have a
slightly different design for the experiment? Go get your own hundred
planets!) And I would like to terraform Mars so I can restage the
Trojan wars. And then there is the life size Ring World museum and
amusement park--Earth's orbit will do nicely. And I want a few billion
space probes to send in various directions to search the universe for
whatever strikes my fancy. Yes, I know the AI(s) will be sending their
own, but I like control of my own data streams, thank you.
Don't forget that the singularity, while greatly increasing the
resources available to effective use, will also greatly increase the
capabilities of consumers to use resouces. There is one solar system,
but billions of us. The current me cannot make effective use of an
asteroid, but given affordable nanotech and spacetravel, I could use it
for data storage, or to make a large sculpture, or a huge number of
other purposes. Scarcity won't be just a matter of food, clothing and
shelter, as it is for many people on earth now. Every single person
will have the capabilty to transform the solar system to match their
dreams, except for a few billion fellow dreamers who will stand in the
way.
The singularity will increase competition for resources. What remains
to be seen is whether that competition is economic, or political, or
violent, or lobbying the sysop.
Tommy McCabe wrote:
>
>
>Even assuming we aren't living in a virtual reality
>where getting something is as simple as snapping your
>fingers, competition for resources is unlikely when
>you can just disassemble Jupiter and turn it into
>stuff that people want. As a matter of fact, doesn't
>that remove one of the main reasons for war, if you
>have the technology for
>instant-mansions-just-add-water? People don't usually
>compete with each other for water during a flood.
>
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