[ExI] Why no space colonies or lunar bases? was Mooon. (Keith Henson)

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 10:45 PM, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 24, 2011 at 8:53 PM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Neither was the switch from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture and animal
>>> breeding... :-)
>>
>> Actually, it was.  There weren't a lot of people objecting to it.
>
> Adrian, how do you know this? It occurred prior to the invention of
> writing.

And prior to there being even ten million (maybe less than one million)
people on the entire planet.  There weren't a lot of people objecting to
it because there weren't a lot of people.  It's easier to get political
approval in smaller groups...

> Also, there are oral stories in Egypt of wars between the
> agricultural settlers and nomads. Some historians believe that the
> reason civilization rose in Egypt is precisely because it was so
> defensible against nomads.

...especially if it cheeses off hated rivals, so long as the political
system you live in doesn't include them.