[ExI] Meat v. Machine

spike spike66 at att.net
Thu Jan 6 00:33:41 UTC 2011


... On Behalf Of Jeff Davis
Subject: Re: [ExI] Meat v. Machine

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 3:35 PM, Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

>> As already discussed, this is not doable at lunar distances

>I have this notion of an army of mobile robots with exceedingly dexterous
manipulators busily working away 24/7on the lunar surface; all of them
"piloted" by ecstatic, pay-for-the-privilege, Earth-bound, ex-gamer geeks;
and a wait-list of would-be "pilots", cash in hand, chompin' at the bit...If
you could sign up to tele-operate a lunar robot, how much would you pay for
the chance to go on that "ride"?  Can you spell "Business Plan"?...

Jeff, this is pure brilliance, me lad.  Take the Tom Sawyer approach to
painting that fence.

>> My greatest source of concern right now is the economic implosion of the
US dollar...

Ja mine too.  I have been thinking a lot about this lately, and trying to
derive a reasonable strategery.

>When the dollar 'implodes' -- ie is devalued radically, say 30-40% -- the
result will bring the US back into the game.  US exports will be competitive
once again; Americans will work again; the constraints of austerity will
make Americans sane and sensible again.  They will ride bicycles a lot.
Life will go on, in an orderly fashion even.  Or not...

I am betting on "or so."  The US and much of Europe is suffering from what I
call Drones Club syndrome, for those of you who are fellow Wooster and
Jeeves fans.  Wodehouse does such a good job of capturing the essence of
1920s Britain, where the lost generation of noble Brits were so long
coddled, they eventually knew not how to actually do anything.  One could
set them in a field of ripe corn and hand them a pig, and they would starve.
The Drones Club was filled with clueless ignoramuses who had plenty of money
because of what their fathers and grandfathers did, but they themselves had
no idea where wealth actually came from or why.  They had good food, nice
clothes, castles and the best of everything an industrialized nation could
produce, yet not a vague clue.

We are the drones.

But we can be taught.  All is not lost.

                 <snip gloomy outlook> Best, Jeff Davis

Yes by all means, snip that.  Far too pessimistic methinks.  We should be
able to write a good simulation of builder-bots operating 1.3 seconds away,
and see what we could accomplish with that modest level of latency.  Once
one gets the rhythm, we will be able to do plenty of building with a 2.6
second round trip feedback loop.

spike









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