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All I can think of while reading this story is... this must be what the Rapa Nui must have felt like as they cut down the last tree on Easter Island to erect ev

All I can think of while reading this story is... this must be what the Rapa Nui must have felt like as they cut down the last tree on Easter Island to erect even taller mo'ai (statues) I always wondered how such a clearly talented and advanced civilization could paint itself into a corner. Now I guess I understand.

pakitan 9y ago
Someone said that's the solution to Fermi's paradox - every sufficiently advanced civilization eventually spends all its resources on cryptocurrency mining :)
- jorvi 9y ago
  Funny, but it actually contains a sliver of truth. There is a theory called ‘The Great filter’ that tries to explain the Fermi paradox. It basically posits there is some almost insurmountable barrier that must be vaulted for a species to become spacefaring. Whether that barrier is behind us (the evolution of intelligent life) or ahead of us (no idea what, avoiding interplanetary warfare possibly?) has not been conclusively theorized.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  The Quintans in Stanislaw Lem's novel "Fiasco" were too busy mining cryptocurrency to make contact and communicate with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiasco_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiasco_(novel)
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Or maybe generalize it to frivolous computing.
wyager 9y ago
We are many orders of magnitude away from “the last tree”. There’s plenty more energy available from the sun, and we should be happy that there’s a market encouraging us to get it.
mhb 9y ago
The myth of Easter Island’s ecocide: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-ecocide/ http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-...
- pakitan 9y ago
  That same site has published a response from Jared Diamond: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-jared-diamond-responds/ http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-... It seems far from established that the ecocide is a myth.
  - mhb 9y ago
    Thanks. Good rebuttal.

pakitan 9y ago

Someone said that's the solution to Fermi's paradox - every sufficiently advanced civilization eventually spends all its resources on cryptocurrency mining :)

jorvi 9y ago
Funny, but it actually contains a sliver of truth. There is a theory called ‘The Great filter’ that tries to explain the Fermi paradox. It basically posits there is some almost insurmountable barrier that must be vaulted for a species to become spacefaring. Whether that barrier is behind us (the evolution of intelligent life) or ahead of us (no idea what, avoiding interplanetary warfare possibly?) has not been conclusively theorized.
DonHopkins 9y ago
The Quintans in Stanislaw Lem's novel "Fiasco" were too busy mining cryptocurrency to make contact and communicate with. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiasco_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiasco_(novel)
digi_owl 9y ago
Or maybe generalize it to frivolous computing.

wyager 9y ago

We are many orders of magnitude away from “the last tree”. There’s plenty more energy available from the sun, and we should be happy that there’s a market encouraging us to get it.

mhb 9y ago

The myth of Easter Island’s ecocide: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-ecocide/ http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myth-of-easter-islands-...

pakitan 9y ago
That same site has published a response from Jared Diamond: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-jared-diamond-responds/ http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-... It seems far from established that the ecocide is a myth.
- mhb 9y ago
  Thanks. Good rebuttal.