From: spike66 (spike66@attglobal.net)
Date: Tue Mar 12 2002 - 21:31:37 MST
>
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>On Tue, Mar 12, 2002 at 03:23:54PM -0000, steve wrote:
>
>>...in places like N.America, is that people do so much travelling by flying. This gives you a distorted impression of both the size of the world and ofhow much of it is effectively empty. If you go on the Trans Siberian you soon realise there are huge amounts of MAMBA country (Miles And Miles of Bugger All). Steve Davies
>>
The MAMBA idea is right, but it is not the *flying* that gives people a
distorted impression, its the *driving*. Everywhere we drive, there are
other cars, traffic jams, support structure, other people. But fly over
anywhere and you realize that MAMBA is still the rule, even along the
densely populated US east coast. Next time you fly down over that,
notice that there is forest and undeveloped land everywhere.
It used to puzzle me that we would hear stories of planes disappearing
and never being found, or found decades later. But if one flies a
private plane, one realizes there are *plenty* of places one could crash
and never be discovered. My father was doing his first solo from Titusville
Florida to Pensacola. He flew for a solid hour over unbroken forest
with not a single sign of civilization. The engine coughed. Didn't
sputter, just coughed. His first thought was that if that engine quit,
he might never be found.
If every square kilometer in the US were given a number, then a number
were chosen at random and one were placed on that square kilometer,
there is a very good chance that the person could not find the nearest
civilization before perishing of hunger or exposure.
Most wild animals on this planet seldom see a human, and even then
only from a considerable distance. I suspect most wild animals on
this planet have never seen a human.
We have a distorted view of the world because of the fact that we
drive, and everywhere we drive is a road. Fly over, see how few
roads there are.
Then think: if we built pipes to carry water, and worked out ways to
produce food more efficiently than we do, thru genetically modified
crops for instance, worked out our intraspecies rivalries based on
ridiculous and antiquated superstitions, could we not fill this planet
with advanced humanity, all living in peace and comfort?
Could we not fill the space and use the energy for beings that spend
their lives thinking thinking thinking? Could we not rise to ever
higher heights? Imagine a world which contained 10 guys like
Anders Sandberg, 10 guys like Greg Burch, 10 like Amara, 10
like Max.
What could we do with such a world? What would be out of
our reach? spike
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