So basically Jesus and Mohammed are responsible for ending the human race.In my opinion, we'll never make any serious inroads into exploration of our solar system, much less interstellar travel, until we transition into some sort of post-scarcity global government. Obviously that can't happen unless someone conquers everyone else, or until we experience a partial/major collapse of civilization and a global government (or its predecessor) rises from the ashes.
Talk about self fulfilling prophecy.So basically Jesus and Mohammed are responsible for ending the human race.
^_^Now you're thinking with portals.
I tend to agree. But sociologists will tell you that low-scarcity societies are end-state moribund places where the old outnumber and rob the young. In the US we're already in a low-scarcity society where even the poorest individuals are the most likely to be obese. Aside from the US, all of the top economies in the world are the ones facing extreme demographic collapse BECAUSE of a moribund, post-scarcity policies. Japan is famously well and thoroughly fucked with its low fecundity and aging population that just won't die. Recently it's become clear that Germany will actually outdo Japan in thegetting-fucked-in-the-ass-by-demographics arenaand some German cities are actually drafting "last kraut turns off the lights" plans for shutting services down at low population levels.In my opinion, we'll never make any serious inroads into exploration of our solar system, much less interstellar travel, until we transition into some sort of post-scarcity global government. Obviously that can't happen unless someone conquers everyone else, or until we experience a partial/major collapse of civilization and a global government (or its predecessor) rises from the ashes.
The Guardian making a shitty article doesn't mean we don't have a massive amount of resources dedicated to all the fields of science that we know about that will help us get into space. Is it as much focus as we futurologists want? No. But to say "There's no point in amazing research if congress is more worried about being re-elected" is silly. I agree that we should push elections to being more research focused, but it's not as futile as you indicate.Thing is we can barely get our shit together to get off low earth orbit.
Beyond the LEO "boundary" there's the more pressing problem of a sociocultural barrier that's probably dooming our species right this moment lol.
I mean look, everyone wants to leave the planet right? Nope, actually the majority of the cultural class wants us to focus resources on helping the poors or curtailing unfettered capitalism.You get cunts like this guywho got to visit SpaceX's factory where they're building reusable rockets that land upright after delivering cargo into orbit and his best observation was:
So as fun as discussing the economic value of interstellar travel versus building matrioshka brains or dyson swarms, it's probably worthwhile discussing whether or not intelligent civilizations ever escape their impulses to recede and fade because populism ultimately crushes their ambition.
There's no point aspiring to buildingNASA's alcubierre FTL ideasor even crowdfunding the VASIMR engine when it'll just get laughed out of congress. We've seen it happen before when the SSC was scrapped in favor of the ISS because an international space station was more "socially inclusive" whilst the SSC was an esoteric Texan adventure from the Reagan era.
I actually think that's as real a potential answer to the Fermi Paradox as the anthropic principle or the simulation argument---how many civilizations just getoutvotedinto a malthusian death-spiral until they no longer have the planetary resources or even the WILL to survive extinction risks? If you think about it, a global nuclear war with the soviet union would've just been the logical conclusion of such a "social barrier" to interstellar expansion.
If intelligence is as widespread as the Drake Equation surmises it is, then power-hungry populism must be too.
The Guardian making a shitty article doesn't mean we don't have a massive amount of resources dedicated to all the fields of science that we know about that will help us get into space. Is it as much focus as we futurologists want? No. But to say "There's no point in amazing research if congress is more worried about being re-elected" is silly. I agree that we should push elections to being more research focused, but it's not as futile as you indicate.
They're dumbasses to you and other technocrats but they're "important" to folks like Szlia. They're "raising many important questions" that need to be answered that can't be answered by, well, technocrats.Sorry I still don't really understand. Are you arguing that dumbasses are preventing or will prevent us from continuing our incredible technological progress?
I think those are important questions, just that they have no say in whether we wil lcontinue to improve our tech.They're dumbasses to you and other technocrats but they're "important" to folks like Szlia. They're "raising many important questions" that need to be answered that can't be answered by, well, technocrats.
Questions like: "why should Elon Musk live to 1,000 if his lifestyle means we need bioengineered pesticides?" Or philosophical ones like "Why shouldn't we go extinct anyway, we just shit on everything?"