[extropy-chat] Wait a minute. What's our contingency plan?

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Thu Jan 13 06:50:52 UTC 2005


--- alexboko <alexboko at umich.edu> wrote:
> *** What should we do to keep technological progress
> humming along
> should the world collapse into another dark age? ***

Short answer: we don't.  If that happens, we've lost.

Long answer: learn and practice the technologies
yourself.  A new dark age can only arise if people
stop using modern technology.  That hardly seems
realistic at this point.  People might frown on
genetically modified foods and cloning and other new
things, but make any serious progress towards halting
mechanized farming and you'll get pro-tech food riots
almost overnight.  Likewise, ban the Internet and
you'll find massive civil disobedience, far worse than
anything seen during Prohibition.  Still,
technological progress may be delayed if people get
scared away from developing technology; if you take it
upon yourself to develop what no one else will (and
publish your results, maybe as books or articles,
maybe as patents, or if you're really successful as
products for sale), then progress on that front
continues even if everyone else shies away.



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