[extropy-chat] TMS

[Dirk Bruere]

Samantha Atkins wrote:

>
> Cool work!  It is not that humanity "wants to" destroy itself so much 
> as it is simply locked into patterns that are very likely to lead to 
> its destruction.   Whether it "wants to" or not isn't really too 
> relevant.   The way we largely killed off nuclear power, haven't 
> developed other alternatives sufficiently and are largely quite 
> wasteful in the way we use fossil fuels and energy  combined with the 
> fact of eventual Peak Oil and decline of oil production says that we 
> are auguring in on energy without some disagreement on how fast we are 
> doing so.    By itself the failure to fully build out some alternative 
> to fossil fuels could bring our civilizations to ruin.    At least the 
> wars and deprivations and their offshoots would be likely to.    Of 
> course our energy habits are just one of many patterns that could be 
> pointed out as  quite detrimental.

I think there's a certain parochialism involved with this view.
The USA is not the be all and end all of 'our civilisation'. I can 
certainly see the USA coming to a rather unpleasant implosive event 
through an antitech stance. However, I do not see Europe or (especially) 
China going that way.

Perhaps what we are seeing (speeded up) is the process of an empire 
enterering its decadent phase shortly before it is suplanted by the next 
(IMO China).

For example, the Chinese have not given up on nuclear power. Indeed, 
they are pushing ahead at a rate that is unthinkable in the West, esp 
with regard to designing and deploying pebble bed reactors on a ten year 
timescale. Some projections I've seen suggest that the Chinese might 
have as many as 300 up and running by 2030. The Chinese also do not have 
any 'moral' qualms that can be traced to a JudeoXian outlook that will 
hold them back when it comes to biotech, plus they have an aging 
population as we do. Unlike us however, they are not in a position to 
expamd their populations by importing cheap labour.

-- 
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org



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