>from a western mindset any measures taken will appear authoritarian I have opened my authoritarian kimono then. We do great harm to our children feeding them

>from a western mindset any measures taken will appear authoritarian I have opened my authoritarian kimono then. We do great harm to our children feeding them fantasy and dressing it up as high-technology. It took me, a nerdy and rather credulous kid, a long time to unlearn the bad intuitions of science fiction, particularly around thermodynamics and FTL. It's remarkable how many people still believe that breaking the light barrier is just like breaking the sound barrier, and it will happen any day now. I was just thinking that very few people have even caught up with science as of 1905. All the science done since then has been stunning, but only because of the intuitions built in the previous century. Without those intuitions to violate, modern science becomes all but inscrutable - and made even more so by poorly labeled fantasy. >The history of ‘western’ thought, in the tradition of the enlightenment and what followed, is inherently tied to Judeo-Christian ethics and morals. Yes, humans have several meaningful dogs in this race. "The West" is the dog I was raised in, and the one I honestly like the most, by a country mile. But I think it's entirely possible that "The West" can't pass the GF. "The West" as a dog is rather vapid and lazy and consumer-y who doesn't make much anymore. It's fat and sated so piles of meat aren't enough to get it out of bed. How does such a dog deal with an urgent crisis on a long time scale, especially in the absence of basic scientific consensus among its people? It may turn out that an authoritarian dog, like China or Russia, may pass the GF where The West fails. I do know that unless awareness grows about the Great Filter, and where we actually stand in relation to it, we will certainly fail. Perhaps the next Great Game won't center around Afghanistan, but rather around protecting life on Earth and spreading life beyond Earth. It seems foolish to say it, but perhaps a powerful person or ten will turn away from their own self-interest to focus on this difficult and long-term task.