From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Jun 23 2002 - 23:06:11 MDT
On Sun, 23 Jun 2002 Spudboy100@aol.com commenting on my comments wrote:
> Not energy, but the lack of building cisterns and water storage tanks for the
> drought years. The lack of using condoms, promoting hiv. Its government, not
> technology.
I have to disagree. I've thought a *lot* about this problem
(since its essential to understand it for my new business).
If we assume it is extropic to want to eliminate situations
where people have relatively little choice with respect to threats
to their survival then it should also (generally) be extropic
to eliminate those threats as rapidly as possible. If one
wants to eliminate problems rapidly -- the solutions need to
be self-replicating and to the extent possible have the minimum
possible replication time (preferably much less than human
generation time).
Building cisterns (using current technology), or spreading the
condom meme will *not* solve the problems in Africa or other
parts of the world anytime soon because the they aren't inherently
self-replicating and/or have long generation times (for example
because of a resistance to the adoption of unfamiliar ideas in
specific cultural contexts).
As Hernando De Soto's work shows, its the rule of law and a host
of other related property rights, e.g. "title" that allow economies
to flourish [1]. Perhaps one of the reasons that Zimbabwae has gone
from being part of the solution to part of the problem, e.g. "But the
government's efforts to seize land from white farmers, who own
more than half the country's fertile land, have disrupted
production greatly." [from the NY Times article.]
*BUT* you can't "replicate" systems of law or a cultural
frameworks needed to support them in short periods of time.
Installing them requires decades to generations. On the
other hand technologies that *are* self-replicating (or
can be produced in "growing" factories, in large numbers,
using common materials and are extremely inexpensive [a rapid
"exponential assembly" vs. a self-replication paradigm])
would seem to have the properties required to solve these
problems most quickly in an extropic fashion.
This is not to say that we don't have examples of human
societies that cannot be uplifted at hyper-speed. I think
the Russian/Soviet culture in the period from perhaps
1920-1960 demonstrated that it can be done -- but the
cost is very high!
So I disagree that it is within the "government" realm
or even the human "meme" realm where the best solutions
may be found. The best solutions are in the realm of
inexpensive technology based (potentially self-replicating
systems) that any individual would *naturally* adopt because
it is in their own self-interest. Mind you(!) -- it is also
in that insight that the seeds of the destruction of humanity
lie. The BDE/Kazaa exploitation of that property is what
has lead to the development of the largest private virtual
network in the world -- with its associated risks to humanity.
We are playing with fire -- will we learn to tend it properly?
Robert
--------
1. See for example, "Russian land reform: Property rights make an
economy hum", The Columbus Dispatch (23 Jul 2001).
http://www.dispatch.com/news/editorials01/july01/776716.php
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