Now I Have a Few Questions
Dr. X posts this from an unused conference room at Beijing Normal University:
"Suddenly, everyone is interested in the opinion of the general public. After crapping on the common man for the better part of two decades, everyone in a position of power is sitting down in front of us and putting on their 'listening face'.
"Stephen Hawking, having shared his concerns about the fate of the earth with a group of Chinese students, has broadened his audience to Everyone Who Reads Anything on The Internets. He asks for suggestions as to how we can all survive the next 100 years.
"Bono wonders, how can we make poverty history (and AIDS, too)? He hopes to recruit new champions from the general public.
"The U.S. Department of Defense, having inherited the 'details' of the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, seeks the input of the people via an essay contest.
"So my question to all of you is: what the hell are you all going to do about the fact robot dogs are inventing their own language?"
posted by Latouche at Large at 6:52 PM
2 Comments:
I was thinking about Hawking's earlier point, which essentially posits that it will be easier to colonize space than to control the multiple risks that arise from the uses of existing and near future technology by our culture.
Several points:
1) If we attempt this, we will accept the reasoning, which depends on a fatalistic acceptance that earth is doomed. This acceptance itself, in a kind of Global greek tragedy, could hasten doom, putting unprecendented resources into discarding the earth instead of saving it- by the nature of it's own fatalistic reasoning, inducing decisions that cause the destruction of the earth. (For example, putting huge economic political, and social resources into advanced manufacturing technologies rather than a fairly straightfoward set of conservation, energy, social equality, natural resource management and population measures, that while unsexy and often controversial, we know for a fact can help make the environment sustainable. There is a far better chance of making this work than making a sustainable space colony anywhere.)
2) Space colonization is a no win situation as far as human survival goes. No matter where you go, there you are. All the risks of technology and society will go with us, and in particular, if the essential problem is that technology is magnifying human power to destructive levels, it will only be worse as a result of the creation on an infrastructure to colonize anaywhere in space. As a result, Hawking is I think unconsciously proposing a cleansing, the abandonment of those in humanity unqualified to merit the resources to go into space. That has to say the least extremely dark implication: the unexamined eugenic assumptions of the uncritical technologists.
3) That being said, I think we haven't looked at Venus enough. It is generally easier to destroy than create - I suspect there may be away to rip away most of the Venusian atmosphere and purify the correct remaining elements for a terran-style atmosphere. Also, if we figure out how to do this, earth can probably be saved from its Venusian-like doom, so it's a two-fer.
Oh God! Soon the dogs will be able to command to us to follow them around, pick up their poo and place it in little bags.
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