[extropy-chat] Re: Hybrids

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dennis May <determinism at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Anders Sandberg wrote:
> 
> >I'm still waiting for someone to argue that an "Extinction Level
> > Event" (asteroids, comets, nuclear war, etc.) is going to
> > eliminate nuclear submarines and all of the knowledge/technology
> > they embody.
> 
> Extinction level events won't necessarily kill all humans right away
> but it would be a significant set back with the potential of leading
> to human extinction.  If only a few thousand humans survive but
> are unable to locate each other in groups large enough to preserve
> technology and/or maintain a breeding group it could mean the
> end.

An extinction level event would cause a decades long global Ice House
climate which would kill off most plant life, most all land animals,
and a majority of sea life.

If only a two or three year winter were the result, you'd simply have
little agriculture and a large amount of cannibalism (SM Stirling's
alternate history novel "The Peshawar Lancers" is a good depiction of a
post near-extinction event world.

Nuclear submarines surviving may preserve a lot of engineering
technology, but one look at the Russian navy yards shows hundreds of
such hulks rusting away a decade after they were parked. The surviving
crews would have to fight for food on land, likely use their nuclear
threat to extort supplies from survivors on land, and use the nuclear
reactor to generate power for a seaside community they choose as a base
of operations. This carrot and stick approach would guarantee their
survival, but would result in a warlord structured society akin to
Afghanistan. Those with technical talent will gradually become court
slaves to feudal constabularies when the isotopes run out.

In fact, nuclear plants would likely become the center of the new
civilization (provided they build some capability of running
independent of the grid, as most require some input power to operate
for some reason). Nations that invest in nuke plants now will preserve
their civilisations better.

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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