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To satisfy your imagination, let's coerce everyone to believe we can be a multi-planetary species, nevermind that we only know of one planet that support us wit

by asdf55 9y ago

To satisfy your imagination, let's coerce everyone to believe we can be a multi-planetary species, nevermind that we only know of one planet that support us without extensive engineering effort. Are we even the same species with any of the same concerns by the time we get to Alpha Centauri planet? These notions still coming from the mouths of my generation are getting a bit bonkers to me as I age. Let's work towards a goal we'll never be able to validate actually happens, as we'll be dead before we get close. Let's build a system that coerces people towards that goal. Let's chew up more and more of this planet researching and building towards technologies and fucking over the next gen of humans here. Because a generation that grew up watching Star Trek wished it would happen real bad!

mowenz 9y ago
What you are misunderstanding. 1. The earth will still be inhabitable in the short run. Even with worst case global warming x10. It will be a lot different, and probably not better, but we can still survive here. 2. 99% of human history people lived without liberties or human rights that became a theme of anti-autocratic philosophies and cultures that grew out of The Enlightenment to make the modern day world possible. Alan Turing would have been tortured to death in earlier years. These last few hundred years may very well be an anamoly, and while we know humans exhibit a tendency towards immoral, autocraric leadership, we should take advantage of the fact we live in the best 0.1% of time in history to develop such technology. It may be that in the short run is the only foreseeable possibile time to become inter-planetary. 3. Competition is what propels human progress 4. Global warming bureaucracies have the same problems the War on Poverty, War on Drugs, and prohibition democracies have. All these problems could be solved by your standard intelligent young adult, but they aren't because of bureaucratic inertia and politics. They are problems of people and human culture of greed. 5. I don't watch Star Trek
- asdf55 9y ago
  What you are misunderstanding: Not everyone cares about the fantasy of becoming inter-planetary. If you are against autocratic regimes, you must be against peddling grandiose fantasies as the highest, "divine" goal of humanity. That's exactly where autocrats come from. Humans are what make humans important. There is nothing else out there, that we're aware of, that cares about us except us. This effort is a pipe dream from people that cannot accept their own mortality. We're not that important in the grand scheme, and likely will never achieve a inter-planetary state, certainly not for us. Competition arises naturally, we need not compel it by forcing fantastical goals down people's throats. "...we know humans exhibit a tendency towards immoral, autocratic leadership..." Which often, I'd say it's a truism, starts with "Let's work together on this one thing! It is the ultimate goal and you should all hold it up as the highest goal! Anyone that doesn't get behind it "misunderstands"." Phrases like "...we should take advantage of the fact we live in the best 0.1% of time in history to develop such technology. It may be that in the short run is the only foreseeable possible time to become inter-planetary." That relies on paranoia and fear to manipulate opinion. The way autocrats do.

by asdf55 9y ago

mowenz 9y ago

What you are misunderstanding. 1. The earth will still be inhabitable in the short run. Even with worst case global warming x10. It will be a lot different, and probably not better, but we can still survive here. 2. 99% of human history people lived without liberties or human rights that became a theme of anti-autocratic philosophies and cultures that grew out of The Enlightenment to make the modern day world possible. Alan Turing would have been tortured to death in earlier years. These last few hundred years may very well be an anamoly, and while we know humans exhibit a tendency towards immoral, autocraric leadership, we should take advantage of the fact we live in the best 0.1% of time in history to develop such technology. It may be that in the short run is the only foreseeable possibile time to become inter-planetary. 3. Competition is what propels human progress 4. Global warming bureaucracies have the same problems the War on Poverty, War on Drugs, and prohibition democracies have. All these problems could be solved by your standard intelligent young adult, but they aren't because of bureaucratic inertia and politics. They are problems of people and human culture of greed. 5. I don't watch Star Trek

asdf55 9y ago
What you are misunderstanding: Not everyone cares about the fantasy of becoming inter-planetary. If you are against autocratic regimes, you must be against peddling grandiose fantasies as the highest, "divine" goal of humanity. That's exactly where autocrats come from. Humans are what make humans important. There is nothing else out there, that we're aware of, that cares about us except us. This effort is a pipe dream from people that cannot accept their own mortality. We're not that important in the grand scheme, and likely will never achieve a inter-planetary state, certainly not for us. Competition arises naturally, we need not compel it by forcing fantastical goals down people's throats. "...we know humans exhibit a tendency towards immoral, autocratic leadership..." Which often, I'd say it's a truism, starts with "Let's work together on this one thing! It is the ultimate goal and you should all hold it up as the highest goal! Anyone that doesn't get behind it "misunderstands"." Phrases like "...we should take advantage of the fact we live in the best 0.1% of time in history to develop such technology. It may be that in the short run is the only foreseeable possible time to become inter-planetary." That relies on paranoia and fear to manipulate opinion. The way autocrats do.