4 ms·

I have to say, this just reads as a thought-terminater happening on your end - we evidently live in a world where even people who strongly believe more should b

I have to say, this just reads as a thought-terminater happening on your end - we evidently live in a world where even people who strongly believe more should be done to stop human suffering ARE RIGHT NOW engaged in doing all kinds of other stuff not directly going towards preventing that, including assigning non-negligible amounts of resources to said stuff. Obviously the opposition is a question of the relative perceived scale of the expense of X to other problems Y, rather than literally wanting an indefinite Achilles-and-turtle race to perfection. It's not that we can't do more than one thing, it's that if we are gonna devote massive amounts of resources to some grand scale project, there are disagreements about what's more pressing. Now personally I do believe becoming interstellar should be one of our shared goals, and that it will be good for us (and the rest of the biosphere) long term. However, I really think that "nevermind the starving kids they will die anyway, it is what it is, focus on space instead" is gonna actively deteriorate our chances of ever getting anything done because it comes off as deeply detached and cruel. You know what would be a tangible benefit of automated asteroid mining? Making child-powered cobalt mines obsolete in a flash, and full-stopping the environmental devastation of stripmining on earth. These are vastly better selling points than "there is no such thing as zero suffering".

M95D 3y ago
> this just reads as a thought-terminater happening on your end That's exactly what it is. Not just that "more could be done" is always true, but it's irrelevant at the same time, because what they propose - taking resources from space agencies and sending truck-loads of food - won't do any good to those children. It will probably just fuel more war and terrorism and more schemes to divert those money to opaque bank accounts in some tropical country. > It's not that we can't do more than one thing, it's that if we are gonna devote massive amounts of resources to some grand scale project, there are disagreements about what's more pressing. Can't just ignore a project because it's not "pressing". And, btw, it IS pressing. We have 50 year of oil left with no alternative that is nearly as good as diesel. Do you tink that mankind can support a grand scale project after that? > [...] is gonna actively deteriorate our chances of ever getting anything done because it comes off as deeply detached and cruel. More cruel than it is now? More cruel than current wars and genocide (you know which ones, I won't name them). People already don't care, except for having their iSomething to brag about. How many children were exploited for all the copper in those devices? Did the buyers care? How many people went to buy FairPhone instead? I think a big project like this is the only thing that can still unite most of the people. I hope China does it first so we could have a race again, like it happend in the 60's. > You know what would be a tangible benefit of automated asteroid mining? Making child-powered cobalt mines obsolete in a flash, [...] Yes, but people still won't care.
mistermann 3y ago
> Now personally I do believe becoming interstellar should be one of our shared goals, and that it will be good for us (and the rest of the biosphere) long term. However, I really think that "nevermind the starving kids they will die anyway, it is what it is, focus on space instead" is gonna actively deteriorate our chances of ever getting anything done because it comes off as deeply detached and cruel. Your intuition is correct, but there's even more reasons that that. I will use a movie clip to introduce what I would try to do if "we" "decided" to set off on an unnecessary interstellar voyage prior to taking care of people (particularly children) here on Earth first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdcE3VyKv5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdcE3VyKv5U And why would I do this? a) bfytw - https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW b) Some other reasons that are more well thought out Humans would be well advised to not forget (or, learn in the first place) that it is MUCH easier to wreck things than it is to build them. I recommend "measuring twice and cutting once", as my grand daddy always told me. PS: I should really try to be not such a pessimist/asshole, so I will also include this clip from the same movie as a counter-balance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et4sMJP9FmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et4sMJP9FmM

M95D 3y ago

> this just reads as a thought-terminater happening on your end That's exactly what it is. Not just that "more could be done" is always true, but it's irrelevant at the same time, because what they propose - taking resources from space agencies and sending truck-loads of food - won't do any good to those children. It will probably just fuel more war and terrorism and more schemes to divert those money to opaque bank accounts in some tropical country. > It's not that we can't do more than one thing, it's that if we are gonna devote massive amounts of resources to some grand scale project, there are disagreements about what's more pressing. Can't just ignore a project because it's not "pressing". And, btw, it IS pressing. We have 50 year of oil left with no alternative that is nearly as good as diesel. Do you tink that mankind can support a grand scale project after that? > [...] is gonna actively deteriorate our chances of ever getting anything done because it comes off as deeply detached and cruel. More cruel than it is now? More cruel than current wars and genocide (you know which ones, I won't name them). People already don't care, except for having their iSomething to brag about. How many children were exploited for all the copper in those devices? Did the buyers care? How many people went to buy FairPhone instead? I think a big project like this is the only thing that can still unite most of the people. I hope China does it first so we could have a race again, like it happend in the 60's. > You know what would be a tangible benefit of automated asteroid mining? Making child-powered cobalt mines obsolete in a flash, [...] Yes, but people still won't care.

mistermann 3y ago

> Now personally I do believe becoming interstellar should be one of our shared goals, and that it will be good for us (and the rest of the biosphere) long term. However, I really think that "nevermind the starving kids they will die anyway, it is what it is, focus on space instead" is gonna actively deteriorate our chances of ever getting anything done because it comes off as deeply detached and cruel. Your intuition is correct, but there's even more reasons that that. I will use a movie clip to introduce what I would try to do if "we" "decided" to set off on an unnecessary interstellar voyage prior to taking care of people (particularly children) here on Earth first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdcE3VyKv5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdcE3VyKv5U And why would I do this? a) bfytw - https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFYTW b) Some other reasons that are more well thought out Humans would be well advised to not forget (or, learn in the first place) that it is MUCH easier to wreck things than it is to build them. I recommend "measuring twice and cutting once", as my grand daddy always told me. PS: I should really try to be not such a pessimist/asshole, so I will also include this clip from the same movie as a counter-balance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et4sMJP9FmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et4sMJP9FmM