[extropy-chat] Space: The Final Constraint

[Lee Corbin]

Damien writes

> But the context here is a thread about extinctions, and what felt
> like a dismissal of environmental concerns today because we'll
> just be able to simulate it later.  Or in your case, simulate the
> experience of it!  Dismissing real problems and *loss* today for the
> sake of hypothetical abilities tomorrow, to use your words, fills me
> with dismay.

I don't disagree!  Though I do quibble with the "loss" part: that's
not clear (given that we don't become extinct soon). Any DNA somewhere
that hasn't even been discovered holds little theoretical value
*compared* to other things.


No, I got on this tangent (and duly renamed the thread) to submit that
we have to know what we *want*, that is, what we ultimately want, in
order to think more clearly about what we want now.

(Yes, yes, yes, I am aware of the horrid dangers that attend this, viz.,
that we start in on central planning and hopeless attempts to maximize
our return too far away, the bane of the 20th century. But I'm hardly
advocating that; I just want people to have a general idea of how 
space is best used, either now or in the future, before they start
in on truly weird things like ZPG.)

Lee