From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Sep 27 2004 - 19:36:26 MDT
At 07:27 PM 27/09/04 -0400, you wrote:
>On Sep 27, 2004, at 10:44 AM, David Picon Alvarez wrote:
>>
>>majority of cases, be negative. In fact, as politics is conducted more and
>>more on the basis of rational discourse instead of by authority of a few,
>>the conscious sphere of the individual becomes more important in relation to
>>the hard-wired condition-action reflexes you speak of, and wars become,
>>where civilization makes politics public, if not inconceivable, at least
>>unfrequent. Example: would you imagine Germany declaring war on its
>>neighbours in the near future because its economy is in bad shape?
>
>While I don't often completely agree with Keith Henson, I do think
>it's a huge mistake to say, essentially, "Everything's different
>now" too early.
Bingo.
>Sure, everything's *going* to be different, but
>I don't think that group conflict is going to cease as long as
>there are groups with comparable power and no higher power to stop
>them.
I don't even think conflict requires comparable power. In fact, I can't
think of a shooting conflicts in my adult life (post WWII) where the
parties had comparable power. Of course, trying to act half way around the
world saps the effective power of even the US.
>This isn't precisely an argument for a "Sysop", but rather, an
>argument that diversification is important. I'm still hold
>that nanotech is more benign than SAI, since nanotech implies
>the ability to escape the bad effects of itself, while SAI does
>not.
Good points, but I think it makes the case for distance even more.
There was a time long ago when I bemoaned the fact that the universe might
not permit FLT travel.
But given nanotech to keep you in good repair even a fraction of c will get
you a long ways.
A problem with the current situation is that there isn't anyplace where you
can escape the unwanted attention of a government, especially one acting
for a cult. Going interstellar and *not* having FTL travel restores what I
have come to see as a desirable feature--though I could be wrong. It is
possible that people like me would have a string of immortal zombies sent
after them!
Keith Henson
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