[ExI] Fermi question, was is a FTL drive a dream

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Sun Dec 25 17:13:32 UTC 2011


On 24 December 2011 16:15, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
>> what about the much more trivial scenarios of a Brave New World where
>> simply all that is simply going (gradually?) to disappear in favour of
>> stability and stagnation and keeping clear of anthropic x-risks and making
>> our planet resources last as long as possible?
>
> Perhaps long-term survival is a Mount Improbable of very large proportions on the fitness landscape, and no-one has yet scaled it.
>
> To a 'stable', localised civilizational ecosystem, existential risks are things outside their sphere of influence - gamma ray bursts, neighbouring supernovae, huge clouds of molecular hydrogen, etc.  All astronomical hazards, that anyone who doesn't spread out beyond their own star will be at risk from.

Obiously, one reason why to opt for stagnation and stasis over
Becoming (the mantra of Huxley's novel is "do not rock the boat") is
an implicit or explicit moral attitude that makes a radical difference
between anthropic and non-anthropic x-risk, and adheres to a metaphor
of survival where what really matters is not the survival of one's
clade, but that of a "society" more or less recognisable in time where
change would be limited to a "physiological" (and, once more, non
anthropic) replacement of its members.

In this respect, the "right" thing would not be to, say, "waste"
resources by sending a party with the aim of populating Mars, but to
save them to give one week's more time to whatever could send them
from earth.

-- 
Stefano Vaj




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