[ExI] Explaining technical matters

[Tomasz Rola]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2012, Keith Henson wrote:

> I recently got a comment back from someone who is reading my draft
> paper on laser propulsion and power satellites.
> 
[...]
> 
> I don't know how to express non-linear equations to where the masses
> (or even technically astute people) are going to appreciate the
> difference in performance between laser heated water and laser heated
> hydrogen without looking into the "rocket science" of the situation.
> 
> This is part of a proposal to displace fossil fuels with less
> expensive solar energy from space.  It's the only energy source I know
> about that scales large enough and is potentially cheap enough to do
> that.  The consequences of not doing something about low cost energy
> could be a die back of several billion people.  It should be important
> to the masses since they are the ones who are most likely to die, but
> I don't have a clue as to how the concepts could be explained.
> 
> Any ideas?

I would say, while Mr Paris Sixpack and his wife Helen Sixpack do not see 
reason to care much about mass extinction (including their own, perhaps), 
they are still able to make rational short-term decisions. For example, 
they know it requires money to buy beer and do laundry and dishwashing. 

Explain, in down-to-ground terms, how cheaper energy translates into 
cheaper costs of life, and they will carry you on their hands.

But prepare to be dropped on your head as soon as they forget your name in 
favour of some pop singer.

BTW, it is quite possible both Paris and Helen have some philosophical 
problems of their own, like the reason to live in a world where they 
cannot see the reason to live. So it's not like they are retarded, they 
just have no mental tools to assess whether you are trying to sell them 
some strange kind of Bible or maybe a real salvation. Or to tell Jesus 
Christ from Christo Buddy, a magician from Oriental Circus - at least not 
until it gets into resurrection contest...

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **