[ExI] EP, lasers and power satellites

[The Avantguardian]

>
>On 4 March 2012 19:06, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Given human evolved-in-the-stone-age psychology that's going to be a
>>difficult task.
>>
>
>This psychology has served us well as long as it was in place,  so I would not be so prone to dismiss it out of hand.

It can only be dismissed in any circumstance to ones misfortune. The first rule of survival is work with what you got. And frankly what you got are lords and ladies of the apes attempting to fight, pray, and hump their way to paradise. 
 
>If anything, I am more concerned about the fact that in comparison to the stone age we are less and less  open to innovation and to large-scale civilisational projects: see the introduction of cattle breeding, agriculture, metallurgy, explorations, pyramids, sedentary communities...

Yes. Technological innovation has historically progressed in the long term much like a driven oscillator. Civilizations rising and falling with each successive civilization pushing the technological bar up higher and higher. There is a critical amplitude of oscillation called the singularity. The question is whether civilization will gel into the singularity on this oscillation or the next. If we achieve singularity, it would be like a like a socioeconomic phase-change or quantum leap to a different energy orbital. Post-singularity humanity will find itself in a whole new wide-open world of bioeconomic niches that I can't quite see. 
 
>What do we have now? "Rational" economic policies, inertia, and the precautionary principle,

What we have is relative peace, Stefano. Historically, peace is a stalemate in the tug of war of an ever increasing number of humans, corporations, national, and local governments all pulling on an N-dimensional rope. When that rope shifts a little for any reason, it is called a political victory for somebody. When that rope shifts a lot, it is called war and nation-states, or empires are being built or broken.
 
 
Stuart LaForge


"The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting by fools." -Thucydides.