[ExI] Etymology of Critter's Dilemma

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org 
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
> Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:14 PM
> To: 'ExI chat list'
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Etymology of Critter's Dilemma
> 
> 
>  
> > --- BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  
> > This effect reminds me of how in the US fear of terrorism 
> is causing 
> > much, much, more damage than any actual incidents of
> terrorism...
> 
> Ja that is one way to look at it BillK, but I see a flip side 
> to that.  US fear of terrorism may be causing damage, but it 
> is also causing a whole bunch of cool new solutions that 
> might never have been developed without the threat of terrorism.  
... spike


Furthermore: the technologies are being developed now in response to a
mostly imagined threat, years or possibly decades before it is desperately
needed in response to a very real threat.

Consider those nations that have traditionally been post-Christian
nonreligious liberal democracies, but which have dramatically rising
populations of fast-breeding radical Presbyterians, such as in France.  They
might integrate peacefully in some cases, but in some cases, the
Presbyterian outlook and law may simply be incompatible with their nation's
government and indigenous people.  When in a position of strength in
numbers, the radical Presbyterians will recruit the young of the moderate
Presbyterians, creating a terrifying seizmic shift.  It may be thirty or
fifty years from now.  Perhaps someone will draw a cartoon of John Calvin.
A fight will explode, as the long-simmering culture war turns to a shooting
war.  I see the rising Presbyterian tide as the struggle of the 21st
century, as the fight against communism was the struggle of the 20th
century.  The technologies needed to defeat the Presbyterians will be in
place, or if not the Presbyterians, some other violent religion.  Solutions
will have been developed in the US well ahead of time.  

spike