[ExI] libertarians and inheritance

[Damien Broderick]

At 04:59 PM 5/8/2009 +0000, BillK wrote:

>When nanotopia arrives, *everything* will change. Even humanity itself.
>If a human becomes a vortex of energy spiraling around a miniature
>black hole, it hardly seems relevant to talk about 'welfare queens'.

That's one, apocalyptic picture; I suspect in the short term, with 
partly self-repping matter compilers of various kinds, we'd see 
futures more like Bruce Sterling's "Kiosk" or HOLY FIRE--incremental 
modifications of the current human condition. Sure, if there's a 
"hard takeoff" the future goes absurdly weird fairly fast, but, as 
Keith and Rafal keep saying, that looks more like doom for everyone 
except the Exes (to adopt Moravec's term).

 >Is it true that Damien drives round in a 250,000 USD Winnebago
 >with a sticker on the back that says
 >'Spending our kids inheritance' ?

My own behavior is irrelevant; all I did was poke the end of a burnt 
stick into what I saw as a seeping hole in the libertarian claim that 
free loot is dreadfully bad for the character--well, unless you have 
a well-to-do daddy (especially if you're a libertarian trustafarian).

Damien Broderick