[ExI] Planetary boundaries (current issue of Science)

[Anders Sandberg]

Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> , 8/6/2014 5:59 AM:
On Sat, Jun 7, 2014 at 6:18 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote: 
 
 Why?  
 There is already a $100 billion dollar satellite communication
 business where the expensive parts are well outside the "planetary
 boundaries."
 
 Can anyone think of a reason we should not move primary energy
 production out there too?
### They think you defile the heavens with tawdry commerce. The worshippers of Gaia wish all humans a quick and painful death already, and an assault on the celestial sphere is the last straw. 

You might find my blog post http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2014/06/do_we_have_to_be_good_to_set_things_right.html relevant.
A more serious answer is that the planetary boundaries people are making certain assumptions about what is being talked about, and they are simply not concerned with too out of the box solutions. They are very much looking at the here and now (and are not Gaia worshippers either; rather, they are very mainstream geo/bio-systems people). I have no doubt they would say that if you could get all the energy from space in some sustainable manner it would be a good thing. It is just that they do not think it is a *likely* thing. This is where Keith and others have their work cut out for them: they actually need to make the case in such a way that a mildly sceptical but numerate person can see that the numbers work out. Once the numbers look convincing enough business will follow. 
Fixing supply chains is a pretty big priority. Insurance people and economists all would love to get a handle on their risks - we simply do not have proper tools today. Improving their resiliency improves global resiliency a lot. Better traceability, measurement, and standardization seems to be a start. 

Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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