[ExI] Engineering

[Adrian Tymes]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> You forget that I have specifically disavowed raising money.  That's
> beyond my skill set.

If you wish to solve this problem, then you must add that to your
skill set, given the budget you request.

Many, many would-be megaproject engineers found this out the
hard way after decades of failure.

But we are transhumanists, are we not?  Do we not believe in
our ability to improve ourselves beyond our present limitations?  :)

> OK, if the people who can raise the money say they have to demonstrate
> things like power beaming before they can raise the money, fine.  They
> can raise the money to do whatever they think is needed to raise the
> rest of the money.

Now you're asking the money-raising people to do engineering:
for them to demonstrate beam tracking and so on.

You need to demonstrate beam tracking before your project can
have the full budget raised for it.

>>> it's cheaper to set up the parts pipeline for hundreds of them
>>> than it is to build just one.
>>
>> Actually, when you factor in the cost of capital acquisition
>> on this scale, it might prove to be cheaper to build just one.
>
> Let's put numbers on it.

Only if you include the cost of capital acquisition.

> There I agree with you.  One high powered CEO required.  What would
> you think of David Petraeus in that role?

Not a bad first thought, but insufficient experience in technical
projects.

What would you think of Keith Henson in that role?  ;)
Upgraded with more skills, perhaps - but skills can be learned.