[ExI] Terraforming Earth

[Stuart LaForge]

>As part of my research for my novels, I watch a lot of YouTube videos
about >“bushcraft” and survival skills, and other fun topics like how to
build a >house for $6000.  While I am very pro-technology, I am leery of
any form of >“Cyber Socialism,” a future in which only a few geniuses
will have any >genuine work to do and everyone else will live off of
“Universal Income” >(as serfs lived off the “charity” of their feudal
masters in the Dark >Ages), distracted by the bread and circuses of
Virtual playgrounds. I don’t >want to live on the charity of a global
cyber-ruling class, and I doubt >that the majority of humanity does
either.

Do you consider running Linux on your computer as accepting charity? What
if you were paid for your performance in the virtual circus instead of
meat space? Would you consider battling virtual orcs for real money?

How about a cyber-Spartan society? Where the machines are like the Healots
of society and supply all the necessities of life while the citizens are
warriors who do nothing but fight wars for control of land and the
machines of production?


>I’d rather see technology used to empower individuals, and not just the
>super geniuses, but the ordinary people, even—dare I say it—the kind of
>people who may have voted for Trump. Or Jill Stein. Or whoever you hate,
>but who wouldn’t matter as much if the government combined with huge
>conglomerates didn’t have such power of our lives. People who want to be
>independent and useful, on their own terms.

I agree with you but the elite will deny that anything is actually
preventing ordinary people from empowering themselves using the tech. How
would you answer them?

>A century of practice reclaiming deserts and tundras, creating dispersed
>energy grids and autonomous urban farms, would be great practice for the
>skills needed to actually colonize other planets or to live in space.
Not >to mention a bit of elbow room would help quite a bit to ease our
current >problems.

This is a great idea, Tara. I like your vision. ;-)

Stuart LaForge