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> What would be the drawback of simply creating a global fund for actual human cleanup at scale? With some set incentivizing price for retrieval, say $0.01 per
by adriand 8y ago
> What would be the drawback of simply creating a global fund for actual human cleanup at scale? With some set incentivizing price for retrieval, say $0.01 per gram?
I'm imagining huge machines trawling the landscape, chewing up beaches and scouring forest floors, controlled by bots that automatically guide them to the nearest plastic recycling depot where they disgorge their contents and then move on. They'll be powered by burning plastic and will thus be self-sufficient, albeit enveloped in toxic clouds of pollution. Occasionally one will lose Internet connectivity and rampage through a small village in the developing country in which it operates (deployment in Western countries will be prohibited), obliterating shanties and the occasional elderly person, baby, or otherwise slow-moving human being.
- ironic_ali 8y agoA environmental cost benefit analysis was most likely done before the outcome you outline so succinctly. The machine clean-up proposal - once appropriate lobbying efforts by the corporation making the profits occurred - flew through Congress with only a token protest vote.
- ripsawridge 8y ago"To clean the village we had to destroy it!" he said, wiping his brow. Nods of agreement and approval all around.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoYou mean “cleanse the village”?
- balt_s 8y agoI am more than a little frightened that many would find this an acceptable solution.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoSounds like a setting for a novel.