[ExI] Maybe space exploration will be a task for AI humanoids

[Adrian Tymes]

On Fri, Jun 28, 2024 at 12:19 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> The obstacle with this idea is much more political than technological
> because, for example, we could probably have genetically-engineered mice
> well-adapted to life in space habitats within a few years, if it was a
> scientific priority.
>

The "political" issue is that this approach would only benefit entities
that we specifically breed for this venture.

1) Those entities are not us.  We ourselves do not directly benefit.  The
apparent means of making sure we do benefit amount to slavery.

2) Just because they could, would they?  What motivation would these
entities have to go along with the objective they were made for?  "Because
they were made for it" / "because it's their destiny" does not suffice.

Add those two together, and obsess about the technological path to the
exclusion (and it would be an exclusion) of trying to solve those problems,
and it's a foreseeable disaster.  Most likely, the organisms would be
abandoned and die off entirely, with the engineering behind it scrapped,
meaning it wouldn't benefit anyone.

I regard this as more of a planning and logistical issue than a political
one.


> In any case, if we stay here on Earth, we are guaranteed to go
> extinct. But if we could colonize off world, the we could survive
> indefinitely. Even if a bunch of brave astronauts have to die die young
> to give their children a future.
>

If you assume that a bunch of astronauts will die young to achieve this
goal, the result that you will get is a bunch of astronauts dying young,
and not much else.

There are far more likely-to-succeed paths that do not probably involve a
bunch of astronauts dying young.  Forget the disasterbation fantasy - which
misleads you into thinking the main problem is a lack of political will -
and honestly look at what's needed to establish extraterrestrial colonies.

The real problem is far more about getting the effort to pay back those who
are currently alive.  They will not donate for your children's future, but
they can be gotten to invest if they think they will see a positive
financial return on their investment within several years.  There are ways
to make that return happen that fast.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20240628/e1202fd3/attachment.htm>