From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 21:37:38 MST
>
> How do you get around to dealing with them - preferrably in a
humane and
> non-intrusive manner?
>
What is this, Fantasy Island? No offense intended. They will either
largely exterminate themselves or be largely exterminated by others,
failing a tech fix. Their resentment of the Haves is irrelevant
without the intelligence and the hardware to do something about it.
Look to Africa; that's the future of the majority of the human race,
right there. It may well be ours as well: Anarchy, warlords,
starvation, disease, slaughter. At least, the way we're going it is.
No doubt about it.
jm
On 31 Jan 2001, at 4:36, denis bider wrote:
> Chris Russo writes:
>
> > I think that if you gave everyone in India who is starving a
> > "limitless" supply of food, you'd see a population explosion
> > there of unimaginable proportions. How far will even miraculous
> > nanotechnology be able to be stretched before we once again have
> > people starving?
>
> Yes, precisely...
>
> I think we all dream of - or maybe at least feel highly of - a world like
> Asimov described in Aurora: a whole planet divided into a relatively small
> number of large properties, each of them governed by virtually
> self-sustained hominids and their robots.
>
> Earth could be a place like that, but... with 6 billion people? I don't
> know. Can the planet sustain 6 billion individuals with high energy/space
> needs? If not - how do you get the population down to something more
> acceptable - say 500 million? (An arbitrary figure, I just pulled it out of
> thin air.)
>
> Of course, the obvious solution is to take a shotgun and some ammo and fire
> away at will. But if we're doing this in the name of improved quality of
> life, this is clearly not an option.
>
> An interesting idea might be to just leave the non-developed countries
> alone; create a high-tech, self-sufficient society in one part of the world,
> and leave the other poor suckers to be as they are. But these poor suckers
> are a potential threat all along - they will develop weapons to threaten
> with, they will develop industry that will pollute your environment, they
> will cause local animal species to become extinct, and so on. So, you don't
> want underdeveloped neighbors in your perfect world, because they spoil your
> dream of a perfect world.
>
> How do you get around to dealing with them - preferrably in a humane and
> non-intrusive manner?
>
> - denis
>
>
John Marlow
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