[ExI] we stand on the shoulders of giants

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Emlyn
... 
> 2009/7/4 spike <spike66 at att.net>:
> >
> > We stand on the shoulders of giants, and most of the time we don't 
> > even realize it. spike
> 
> ... 
> It'd lend us an interesting peace of mind to know that any 
> one of us could rebuild the human enterprise from scratch if 
> necessary!
> 
> I think Bryan's endeavour is a bit more realistic, btw. Emlyn


Ja, and the thought space diverges here in a way.  One worthwhile pursuit is
to try to archive the human enterprise, but I was kinda going off in a
different direction.  If all technology were to suddenly fail on this planet
(or be intentionally destroyed in a hostile action), most of us would be in
very poor condition quickly.  We really depend on our machines.  But an
Amish family would have not such a tough go of it, and a sub Saharan tribe
would scarcely notice that anything changed.  

We have introduced a new way to kill us: the electromagnetic pulse.  Over
time, there are fewer Amish and remote tribes, so we can imagine our species
actually becoming ever more dependent upon technologies that fewer and fewer
understand, or can reproduce.  While Bryan is thinking about archiving, I am
thinking about how to make ourselves less vulnerable to the failure of our
own gadgetry.

spike