[ExI] keynes vs hayek again, was: RE: 3d printers for sale

[Anders Sandberg]

On 26/08/2012 18:11, BillK wrote:
> I think you are talking about the Broken Window Fallacy. 

Exactly what came into my mind when I saw Spikes post. Making stuff in 
order to blow it up is not as effective as making stuff that is of 
value. If the alternative is not making stuff at all, then it might make 
sense.

(The orthodox libertarian answer is of course that the Market will sort 
things out if the government just got out of the way. Unfortunately 100% 
employment is likely not market efficient. )

Then again, remote control warfare is an interesting issue. The US is 
clearly going that way, and most other nations follow. There might still 
be a need for guy with a rifle on the ground, but given time even he 
might be represented by a telepresence robot. The worrying issue is that 
this also enables tele-warfare for everybody. So far I have never gotten 
any answer when I ask defence people about what they do when the first 
UAV sweeps down Fifth Avenue. While tele-warfare robot-on-robot is fine 
entertainment and produces at least broken window stimuli for the 
economy, tele-warfare robot-on-strategic targets is bad news all around. 
It is a bit like cyberwarfare but in the physical world: hard to trace 
(and hence to assign blame), potentially a nasty first mover surprise, 
and potentially relatively cheap. What do we do when an unknown party 
physically wrecks key power stations? Or is the solution air defense not 
just on housing blocks near olympic arenas but *everywhere*? The risk is 
of course that we could get something like Spikes scenario for real, but 
now putting nasty hardware everywhere (and then spending remaining 
resources making sure it is not hacked and turned against us).

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University