[extropy-chat] warmer weather = better wine

[Spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org 
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of 
> Harvey Newstrom
> 
> > And walruses, well, I wouldn't want to be 
> > them.  But plenty of other species will thrive, such as 
> > humans.  We are *Africans* fer evolutions sake!  
> 
> Now you seem to have strayed from serious argument to humor.  
> If this entire
> posting was a joke, please disregard my comments above.

Harvey you flatter me, but I don't think I am as funny as
that.  I didn't intend humor in the comment, other than my
usual lighthearted way in which I view the world.  We really
are all Africans, we can take the heat a lot better than we 
can take the cold.

> 
> > We are a smart species, we can move cities, we can
> > move nations.  We can build cities on stilts.  We can 
> sequester water 
> > inland.  We can reclaim a great deal of land that is currently 
> > useless, under ice most or all of the time.  We can reclaim 
> a lot of 
> > fresh water that is currently wasted, by creating new rivers and
> > reservoirs, eliminating useless deserts.  The Sahara
> > and Siberia both have bright futures, whereas now
> > they are nearly useless.
> 
> Perhaps, but we can't do it now.  We can't even maintain our 
> roads right now...

Well, I think we can maintain our roads, should we decide
to do so.  What you are touching on are political problems,
which we can solve if we really want to or need to.  Right now 
mankind spends most of its energies and talents fighting each 
other, or fighting over wealth that has already been created by 
others.  If you look around, you will see most people occupying 
themselves in activities that create no new wealth, building
no new infrastructure.  

Perhaps I am cynical, but I do live in a state whose legislators 
were recently caught by an open microphone deliberately 
plotting to make maximum spending cuts *on roadbuilding and 
road maintenance* so that the voters would feel the pain 
immediately and vote for tax increases.

Political problems like these have solutions, but they will 
not appear until needed.  Right now most of the world has
the luxury of spending most of our time not creating wealth. 


>  I believe that technology in the future will grow 
> dramatically.  But
> if we don't have the solution now, and we agree that your slow global
> warming is occurring, then we are literally in a race to create the
> technologies you describe before the slow disasters you describe.
> Harvey Newstrom...

OK I see your hesitance, but I am arguing that we DO have
the technology to do this, right now.  I have a difficult 
time imagining how a singularity could be more than two or 
three hundred years down the road, at which time Florida 
will still be there.  I fully expect a singularity in this 
century.  If a species much smarter than humans appears,
it is a sure bet that we need not worry about insurance
companies failing.  (They wouldn't, by the way.  They would
simply stop writing policies on buildings that they can predict
will be reclaimed by the sea within 50 years.)  I am not
part of the singularityclaus-will-solve-everything crowd,
but it sure seems like it could solve this one, and even
if not, WE can solve it, using only primitive current 
technology.  We would need to stop fighting and start
building.

spike





spike