[extropy-chat] Extinctions

[Damien Sullivan]

On Sun, Jun 11, 2006 at 04:33:40PM +0200, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Damien Sullivan wrote:

> > In the short term, donations to the Nature Conservacy, good zoos, and
> > other conservation organizations; push for human population
> > stabilization (there's probably more growth potential for intellectual
> > capital and problem solvers in educating the exiting population than in
> > growing it) and contracted land use.
> 
> I think conservation attempts certainly have merit, but I wonder about the
> utility of population stabilisation. Or rather, it tends to follow female
> literacy rates and reducing poverty, two other things that are good in
> themselves. Just stabilizing the population is unlikely to be morally
> doable without a lot of good carrots, and a too quick stop might actually

"It happens automatically but isn't morally doable"?  Mental skid. :)
Yes, it seems to follow female literacy and wealth (or just literacy),
which is lucky for us, but it's probably also helped by access to birth
control.  Contrast with current US government (and Catholic) policies
which actively oppose birth control.  So push for a less obstructionist
government, if not one which actively funds birth control, abortion
access, and accurate information.

> > Desalination has costs in brine disposal, but might still be a net
> > positive if nuke- or solar- powered.
> 
> This is also a killer app for early nanotech.

Mmm.  Reverse osmosis seems to be pretty good already, kilojoules per
kilogram.

> 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.

"Just" roof (I imagine connected roofs or small domes are much easier
than a Big Dome) over an existing city.  A moderately smart system could
change albedo and ventilation, and presumably cut heating and cooling
(and road clearing) costs a lot.  In summer have a mix of reflectors and
open spaces, blocking sunlight and letting hot air escape; in winter
have a transparent and greenhousey solid layer.

-xx- Damien X-)