[extropy-chat] global warming eats island

[Robert Bradbury]

On 12/30/06, Ensel Sharon <user at dhp.com> wrote:

> Eh ... I notice that that skepticism and critical thinking go somewhat out
> the window when it comes to XYZ diet supplement of the week that so and so
> is overdosing daily on.


Not so Ensel.  If you have not been on the list for a long time you may not
have noticed that I will whack Anders in the side of the head, and Spike or
Eugen will whack me in the side of the head, and we let the physicists go
off and do what the physicists will do. (the physicists have questionable
value, the dust astronomers are doing real work).

But yeah, other than the total blind faith that the end of history is
> going to come now, in your own lifetime, and the blind faith that the
> (possibly very) puny technological progress we have made up to this point
> is some end all be all, yes, we are all fairly skeptical.


There is no "end of history", it is coming fast (go out there and *stand* in
the path of the Freight Train which can be labeled "Moore's Law".  Yes, the
technological progress we have made up until this point is "puny".  To make
that point *in spades* I will quote Drexler, "A region with a structural
volume of 1nm^3 N_opt = 30 and N_v = 100 nm ^-3 has a N_struct = 10^148.
[1]  Can you even claim what fraction of that phase space has been explored
or how you would explore it? All that nature has explored to date is a
*pitifully* small fraction of that.

But perhaps, we that see the future coming will write the reality and
thererin lies a complex question..

Matter is software.  Remember that.

1. Nanosystems, pg 264.
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