[extropy-chat] Darwin Award

[Morris Johnson]

From: Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 3:29:19 PM
Subject: [extropy-chat] Diaspora was Bluff and the Darwin award


At 01:28 AM 5/16/2006 -0700, Samantha wrote:
> For what are basically economic reasons it will take nanotech level
> technology to get us into space.  I don't see any way to avoid strong AI.

I encountered this myth regularly when I was working as a consultant for
NASA, and it just doesn't hold water.

It is true that if you're a massive government agency, wasting billions of
dollars under a system which rewards failure instead of success, getting
into space costs an enormous amount in resources and (therefore) money.

If government had enough sense, in the seventies and eighties, to anticipate
personal computers being terribly valuable, and they'd set up a massive
NASA-like organization to ensure good computer technology and universal
accessibility, PCs today would cost tens of thousands, be 16 bits, have a
meg or two of RAM, and be as slow as a 286. Oh, and inaccessible to all but
the wealthiest.

That's what happens when you have a government monopoly.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
You are saying that the healthcare system is collapsing on its weight
in the areas it has the most control over, and the least regulated areas are
the most
likely to be successful?

Just another thought of interest.
Back in 1970 Canada almost did have what you describe.
It was called "information Canada".
You would phone or write and a nest full of hired consultants and such and
they would
search for answers to any question you posed.
In such an environment a government body and its union  might have said
"who needs an internet....look how many jobs we will loose as a result"
Quite a scary thought when you look back on it.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060516/decab6d7/attachment.html>