[extropy-chat] Extinctions

[Samantha Atkins]

On Jun 11, 2006, at 8:07 AM, spike wrote:

>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
>> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
>> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 7:34 AM
>> To: ExI chat list
>> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Extinctions
>
>>
>> ... This seems to be quite realistic, if there was
>> only an economic incentive for it.
>>
>> I'm suspicious of the arcology idea, since most of its proponents  
>> have
>> made rather centralist assumptions and imagined that people would
>> naturally want to become good little homo sovieticus once they  
>> joined the
>> collective. It would be interesting to design an agoric arcology that
>> actually used internal markets to be flexibly self-sustaining.
>>
>> --
>> Anders Sandberg,
>> Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
>> Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
>
> Anders hit it right on once again.  All our efforts at ecological
> stewardship must be profitable before they will ever fly.

A pity we don't apply the same logic to wars and countless government  
boondoggles.


> Governments can
> provide subsidies and incentives to some extent, but governments  
> run out of
> money eventually.  Alternative energy sources will go nowhere until  
> the
> cheap oil is burned, for instance.

I have been amazed to watch the stock price of many alternative  
energy companies fall while oil stays in the stratosphere.  Something  
is wrong.  I don't think it is "greed".   I think it is a deep  
recognition of sunk cost in oil based infrastructure.

- samantha