[extropy-chat] Precautionary Principle - A Must Read!

[Extropian Agroforestry Ventures Inc.]

The precuationary principal must have the anti-cilization folks with
http://www.greenanarchy.org really rubbing their hands.

The converse of the precautionary principal is that with somewhere near 50% of
the free energy from oil used,  it is imperative technology to advance the
species which requires cheap energy have enough time left on the clock to make
the transition.

Any slow-up for several decades puts greater need to sacrifice life style to
achieve
development in the hands of those seeking to advance technology.

Given the huge waste of resources on warlike  enterprise any slowdown does not
look good.

The caution is more fear than intellect at work.
When 2 cows test for BSE an entire industry is shut down.
Complete blanket testing is cheap and available  and would allow resolution
quite quickly.  The reaction to animal vectored disease is wholesale slaughter
in countries where food is at a premium.  Wholesale vaccination of diseases
rather than bombing Iraq is the war with the better return of  global  human
capital.

Global policy with an extropian perspective needs to be developed and
implemented.

We get so worried about moderately severe illnesses jumping the species
barrier.

If the people who are behind the precautionary principal want something
worthwhile to undertake , it would be to eradicate AIDS from the planet before
it develops the next evolutionary tactic, virulence.  With tens of millions of
carriers and trillions of organisms per host lifetime the numbers are in favor
of the microbe and not the host.
There  will be lots of oil for all if the world population reduces from 6
billion to 6 million in 30 years.

Robin Hansen's Ideas Futures policy analysis site might add the afore and after
mentioned senarios to the choices  to wager on.  They beat terrorist threats
all to hell. If I bet 100$ that AIDS becomes virulent within 20 years and get
10,000 to1 odds , as well as bet that within 35 years it will be eradicated I
can win both ways.
The first will bring huge returns with the first catastrophe.  The windfall of
money I make could contribute to the cure.  After the crisis, the odds of cure
will shift the same as the odds against virulence.  At the end it is a double
win.  Isn't that how the military planners bet?



...MFJ

"natashavita at earthlink.net" wrote:

> The Science Environment Health Network has an excellent source of
> information on the Precautionary Principle.
>
> *While caution is essential, and precaution is a very important concept,*
> the use of the Precuationary Principle as a rallying tool against
> theraputic cloning and other biotechnological advances is harmful.
>
> Check out the link below in preparing for the upcoming "VP" Summit.
> http://www.sehn.org/precaution.html
>
> Here is one comment worth reading:
>
> "Debating the Precautionary Principle"
>            Nancy Myers, March 2000
> "The precautionary principle has taken center stage in a number of recent
> international discussions on trade, the environment, and human health. As a
> result, it has stirred criticism as well as interest. In these discussions
> and in a growing number of media reports on the principle, certain
> criticisms and qualifications, enumerated below, have been repeated with
> some frequency."
>
> Natasha
>
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