[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 124, Issue 14

[Keith Henson]

On Sun, Jan 12, 2014 at 4:00 AM,  Eric Messick <eric at m056832107.syzygy.com>

snip

> Not quite.  Let me try again.
>
> Keith was lamenting the lack of support for space based solar power.

That's correct, though it isn't just about SBSP, it's a lack of
support, even interest, in technical solution to get us out of the fix
of energy, carbon, climate, etc.

> He was looking for an explanation of the hostility he sometimes sees
> to what looks to me like an obviously good idea.  How, he asks, did we
> evolve into creatures with such reactions?

Or if it isn't a direct result of evolution, how did we come by a set
of such memes of hopelessness? How do we shake them off? Why hostility
to good news? My personal observation of this dates back to shortly
after the L5 Society was founded, at a Limits to Growth conference we
were nearly through out of for proposing that a solution existed.

> Rejecting potential solutions to problems which threaten your genes
> does not seem like a good survival strategy.
>
> There has been selection pressure in the other direction.  Being
> conservative about accepting new ideas is adaptive because many new
> ideas are worse than the old way of doing things, which has worked for
> generations.
>
> Past ice ages may have altered the balance.  If the stresses they
> cause on populations are enough that the old ways no longer work, then
> people who cling too tightly to the old ways will die out, and less
> conservative people will be selected for.
>
> We have constructed a world where everything changes much faster.
> Being conservative in such an environment is less adaptive.
> Conservative pressures not to develop new power sources may result in
> a tragic die off. It may not be just the conservatives dying, though.
>
> Perhaps such a die off would be analogous to what happened in past ice
> ages.  Perhaps a slightly less conservative species will emerge.  In
> any case, it would be an awfully high price to pay.
>
> Is there a better way to get people to accept change?

I would be satisfied with a more widespread attitude that we should
fix or at least be actively looking for fixes to problems.

Thanks Eric.

Keith

> -eric
>
>