[ExI] Space Mining

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 2:40 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> Quoting Ben Zaiboc:
>> Not that I think any of this is really relevant, though, because space
>> is not a good place for biology. But I've voiced that opinion enough
>> times now. It seems that space colonisation (by biological humans) is a
>> topic like uploading (except in reverse). No real point arguing about
>> it, given people's resistance to logical argument.
>
> I do agree with you that machines would be better suited to outer
> space than biologicals. But colonization of space by biological humans
> is the only rational decision if the alternative is genetic and
> cultural stagnation leading to extinction here on Earth.

I would add in extinction events here. I'm actually not sure of
genetic stagnation. That would seem to be an engineering problem even
now. And I think even without that, were it really happening, it would
sort itself out without necessarily leading to extinction.

> In another
> thread, they talk about John Calhoun's mouse utopia experiments, the
> behavioral sink, and population collapse. Such a scenario could easily
> affect humanity here on Earth. We are, for example, already
> experiencing a reversal of the Flynn effect and for the last 50 years,
> the average IQ has been dropping.

How confident are researchers that there's an actual reversal here --
versus hitting the top or just a short-term downturn or sampling error
(due to more varied people taking tests)?

> This stagnation becomes more likely,
> the closer we move to a global one world government. A big commonality
> of behavioral sinks are the closed nature of the habitats in which
> they develop.

I'm not so sure about world government now. Mass casualty weapons
proliferation might attenuate attempts at that. Certainly, right now,
it appears the unipolar period might be coming to an end and
multipolarity might replace it.

> Being able to leave the Earth, despite all the danger and hardship,
> might be humanity's one saving grace.

I too want people (biological or not) to start migrating out as soon
as practicable -- partly to avoid authoritarian societies and partly
to avoid extinction and partly for the sheer desire to explore and
expand.

Regards,

Dan
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