HM Re: [extropy-chat] Re: US right to invade say Iraqis

[The Avantguardian]

--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> The camel jockey oilmen know this, and will play the
> game just so to keep these kinds of investments
> from being attractive.  The fact that all that sweet
> crude is there, and comes out of the ground on its
> own is a persistent threat to the investment
> community
> who would otherwise develop oil alternatives. these
> alternatives are ones we already know how to do.
> 

But this is circular logic. Any development of
alternative energy sources would automatically cause a
drop in the price of oil. To use the fear of this as
an an excuse not to invest in these alternatives is
silly. It's like saying that calculators should not
have been developed because it caused a reduction in
the price of slide-rules. This is true, but it did not
mean that suddenly the demand for slide-rules shot up.
What these investors have to understand that if
alternatives are developed, people will switch to
them, even if they are a little more expensive,  for
no better reason than to feel good about being
high-tech.
 
This will especially be true if we convince consumers
that what the spend on cheap oil based energy goes to
fund TERRORISM. If you want to end terrorism, you
don't try to bomb it into submission, you merely spend
your money elsewhere and starve it away. We should
switch to the alternatives no matter how cheap their
oil gets because we need to show them that they need
our money more than we need their oil. Then maybe they
will start making an effort to get along with the rest
of the world.  

The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. . ."

- Albert Einstein, "What I Believe" (1930)

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