[ExI] imaginable wealth

[Keith Henson]

On Fri, Mar 6, 2026 at 1:14 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

You bring up a point I had not considered before.  What evolutionary
selection has led to the feeling of awe for big spaces like cathedrals?

I can see that the sensation of being in the open would be selected to
heighten awareness of predators.  This needs thinking.

Keith

>
>
> We are told that AI will either kill us all or create unimaginable wealth.
>
>
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> I have long thought there are other possibilities, such as creating
> imaginable wealth, as previous leaps in technology have done, while neither
> killing us nor generating unimaginable wealth.
>
>
>
> The photo below is a selfie I took of my arm (would that be called an
> army?)  I am six ft and my arm is nearly vertical, so about 8 ft from the
> floor.
>
>
>
> Notice the door is considerably higher, about another 3 ft above my
> reach.  So that doorway to the restroom is about 11 ft.
>
>
>
> This photo was taken on a medical building which was erected on the site
> of an impoverished metal shop I used to frequent in my cheerfully
> squandered youth, about 35 years ago.  The site is now a modern office
> facility which likes to show off a bit.  It has everywhere in it
> indications of how imaginable wealth is utilized: in showy extravagances,
> such as buildings on a 12 foot scale rather than the usual 8 ft.  It costs
> more to do that of course, but it feels so cool, makes everything feel
> modern and forward looking.
>
>
>
>
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> It somehow reminded me of when I was visiting the grandiose cathedrals of
> Europe, which filled me with awe and wonder.
>
>
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> In the cathedrals, I thought: AWE man!  WONDER if they would let us have
> autonomous rubber-band powered airplane contests in here?
>
>
>
> It’s a very special kind of awe and wonder.  We could set it up to where
> the contestants would lose points if they crash into those people praying
> over there, for instance.  See if we could rig up miniaturized control
> systems so that they could get points by flying around up top, near the
> expensive paintings without hitting them, or fly patterns around the
> statues, providing the less devout worshippers free entertainment,
> something to do to break the boredom, that sorta thing.  The mind boggles.
>
>
>
> spike
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