[ExI] Alpha Centauri

[Giulio Prisco]

I also agree that a small society in an unforgiving environment will
likely tend to be cohesive and collectivist by necessity.

But there are two different types of collectivist societies: 1)
societies that protect the majority of citizens from probable actual
harm resulting from actions by individuals or minorities; 2) societies
where a "moral majority" claims the right to tell everyone which hand
they must use to wipe their own butt and punish those who don't
comply.

I accept 1) as a necessary evil but I will never accept 2).
Unfortunately I have the feeling that our societies often forget 1)
but practice 2 more and more, in a gradual process that goes almost
unnoticed.

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 11:27 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
> On 19/10/2012 11:46, Charlie Stross wrote:
>>
>> So I'd expect such a colony mission to make the Netherlands or Sweden look
>> like an anarchist utopia populated by wild individualists.
>
>
> Of course, at least the Netherlands show that one can still be pretty
> individualistic along some dimensions while being cohesive among others. But
> it certainly helps if you are a rich and secure society.
>
> Generally, I agree that a small society in an unforgiving environment will
> likely tend to be cohesive and collectivist by necessity. If you want to
> build libertopia it better be big enough, or have a relatively easy frontier
> to expand into.
>
> So my prediction is that if seasteading ever happens it will be more like
> rural communes than Galt's Gulch. Until it becomes really easy, which would
> produce a brief period of wild west as the oceans get colonized fully,
> followed by consolidation and romantization of the free past.
>
>
>
> --
> Anders Sandberg,
> Future of Humanity Institute
> Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
>
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