[extropy-chat] Darwin Award

[Samantha Atkins]

On May 18, 2006, at 12:30 PM, jeffrey davis wrote:

> Then Samantha wrote:
>
> > Depends on what you mean I suspect.  The context of
> > these remarks is getting enough of humanity into space and far  
> enough away to end up with self-sustaining colonies/outposts that  
> give humanity a much better chance of survival.  To satisfy all of  
> these constraints we are talking self-sustaining groups of on the  
> order of thousands of humans (genetic diversity) preferably  
> relocated outside the Solar
> System or at least in the outer system.  Please tell
> me what you are going to use pre-nanotech to make this a reality.
>
> Now me:
>
> This is an economic problem.  Man hours per kilogram of payload. To  
> lower this cost, to lower the man hours per kilo, you need to have  
> more of the work done by machines, ie automation.  It's not magic,  
> and it's some futuristic über-tech. You don't need full-on self- 
> replication with 100 percent closure. A lesser degree of closure  
> will do.  In the end it's still just advanced automation.  It's  
> irrelevant whether it's nano-, micro-, or macro-tech.
>
> I'm working on it.

It is not irrelevant as the type of technology available determines  
the costs of such a project and its  feasibility.   Sufficiently  
advanced automation to accomplish this task as well as sufficient  
resources and sustaining technology may require nanotechnology and  
AI.  I think that it will.  If you think otherwise then please make  
your case.

- samantha