Techno Possibility is subordinate to species mindset,

Post #275,522

12/11/06 10:50:14 PM

always. No?

What we have here is.. an idea that 'technology' can solve a basic Existential question - for a species which has demonstrated its willingness to "eat all the seed corn" [pick whichever simile makes for saving a few thousand words.]

Whether the "tipping points" limned in Gore's - or any other of the now many extrapolations from present data - are at all accurate in time estimates: the few mechanisms already mapped / detected, inspected / are demonstrably at Work.

More study will produce refinement. But IMO No 'Study' shall, in. time. - reprogram the people we have allowed (by default of popular disinterest, sloth and inertia) to control the Wealth? "Total Energy/Effort Distribution"? - of the planet. Yet the skills of (some.. of those Czars/Tsars of the mega-scale) could be very useful, were they employed for survival-of-the Many VS Wealth-of Me.

If we don't address, 'solve' *that* psych problem in incredibly short time, all the rest is / will remain just air noises. IMhO. Econ theory has no spreadsheet entry for - Planetary nest maintenance Tax. And those who worship that Gawd, shall resist conversion as much as ... a Hottentot will use a GameBoy for a poi dish.

Place your bets: decimation via whimper -or- amidst wholesale Tribal slaughter?
(with the Grated Compounds being razed early-on.)

With the Net, cooperative News could travel fast, maybe even faster than Jihad.. unless..

Unless..
that stubbornest X% will Still opt for the notion, God Wants US Dead next..
..we became a Cosmic Embarrassment? Hmmm, one could understand such a recap. No?

Post #275,528

by imric

12/11/06 11:24:27 PM

*sigh*

Which is one of the reasons why we have to have a permanent, self sustaining presence elswhere.

Imric's Tips for Living

Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.

Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.

Post #275,546

by boxley

12/12/06 7:47:55 AM

s/species/society/g

Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 51 years. meep

reach me at [link|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net|mailto:bill.oxley@cox.net]

Post #275,571

by dmcarls

12/12/06 2:38:51 PM

Remember Biosphere 2?

There's a lot of stuff on the Web about it, but here's one:

[link|http://www.permanent.com/s-bio2m1.htm|http://www.permanent.com/s-bio2m1.htm]

[...]

"The purpose of the facility is no longer habitats for space, but is for studying earth's ecosystems. There will be no more sealed missions of people inside the habitat, and the work does not look directly applicable to space habitats any more. Space Biosphere Ventures is out, and Biosphere 2 Science Consortium is in. "

Who will fund space exploration?

Post #275,822

by Ashton

12/14/06 11:04:24 PM

Re: Remember Biosphere 2?

Who will fund space exploration?

I haven't reached any conclusions re assigning some exact(?) priority of 'space exploration' VS all else; clearly It is There - and we are wired to forever ask Why (usually a bad question) and always, How.

The morphing of Biosphere 2 sounds even more appropriate now, especially as the focus massively accelerates on matters of Local habitat survival. Perhaps the 'deep space' funding shall have to suffer until some equilibrium occurs twixt the inveterate Deniers and the manic Alarmists re climate change extrapolations.

That Bio article though, indeed applies to climate matters -- in a perspicuous (if a bit snide) characterization of the 'types' of naysayers/boosters who are forever leveraging egos in disgustingly Rovian ways. I see that ignoble facet of the Science equivalent of Suits [and Corporations! specially] as one of the major time-wasters which shall inevitably produce waste.. in the next efforts to coalesce (without simplistically conflating) a massive data-hunt and analysis project we see we Must speedily construct.

No idea if.. a %sufficient of the competent and dedicated can overcome the neurotic personalities next [???] THIS is one of those 'cases' - no longer theoretical - where multiple forks must be simultaneously funded \ufffd l\ufffd Manhattan Project (U? or Pu? or Both?! == Yes.)

There Will be waste because there Must be - for all the giant holes in our present comprehension of the near-infinite dimensions of the planetary feedback system (and for our disdain in improving that knowledge: till faces rubbed in it.) I see the major problems being more of this human/class/caste kind, than in the merely onerous work of measuring, sorting, weighting and digesting - via normal scientific criteria.

It seems we shall have to improvise a crash program in adulthood for a planet of overgrown teens / at the same time as work tries to proceed. 'Grow Up or Die?' has a nice ring to it. Will such propositions counter Greed? How Many of the super-rich shall opt to die Super-rich, rather than not-die.. but lose the Lear?

Imagine... if a cretin like Shrub were 'managing' >This< !!
And, even if he's sent back to cut wood in Crawdad/whatever - we certainly have many mini-Shrubs ever anxious to 'manage'. ie short form: it's [still] a crap shoot, especially when Religio schism rears its ugly head - and, It Will.

Yet there are some encouraging signs from certain evangelicals, abetted by a few soft-spoken scientists (one from Harvard on Charlie Rose, a few nights back) - in putting aside the liturgies and cooperating on common moral grounds. E. O. Wilson, was it? Pity no transcripts from that now very-commercial, Bloomberg-rich guy. :-/
Still: a hopeful presentation. We'll need lots of such surprises.

We may at least Hope that Gaia proves a smarter feedback-manager than the cretins to whom Power remains their main aphrodisiac; She may be a metaphor or She may be ___ something Else, this 'Nature' Thing. But hubris wouldn't consider the idea even worth a glance..

First we kill all the Neocons. Then . . .

Post #275,869

by drewk

12/15/06 9:40:41 PM

Wuzzat the one with Pauly Shore?

===

Kip Hawley is still an idiot.

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