As a counterargument, I can strongly recommend reading Peter Watts' talk on The Scorched Earth Society: http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/TheScorchedEarthSoci

As a counterargument, I can strongly recommend reading Peter Watts' talk on The Scorched Earth Society: http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/TheScorchedEarthSociety-transcript.pdf http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/TheScorchedEarthSociety-t... (Sorry, PDF.) (Also, for the record, I agree with neither Watts nor Brin.)