From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Sep 28 2001 - 22:06:55 MDT
Greg Burch wrote:
>
> Assume that you are George W. Bush's senior science policy adivosor. (This
> means that you are NOT an anarcho-capitalist or even a libertarian -- try it
> as an exercise for fun.) Now assume that you have become convinced (which
> wouldn't be hard to do) that one of the most rigid constraints on US foreign
> policy is the industrialized world's dependence on Middle Eastern oil. In
> recent briefings you have become despondent over the intractable nature of
> the conflict between the Enlightenment cultural values you hold as a
> scientist and the Islamic revivalist movement that is the most dynamic
> political and social force throughout that region. You want to propose some
> means of decreasing the West's dependence on fossil fuels.
>
> Question: What would you propose?
Lots and lots and lots of nuclear power plants.
To be specific:
1) Streamlined regulatory requirements for the construction of nuclear
power plants. That doesn't mean looser safety boundaries; it means less
paperwork. Adding an engineer to a project makes it safer; adding a
bureaucracy does not. My impression is that most of the extraordinary
expense and construction time associated with nuclear projects is the
result of bureaucracy. Turn it over to the engineers.
2) If I'm not an anarchocapitalist, it must mean that I want increased
funding for nuclear R&D.
3) If I'm not an anarchocapitalist, then I must think it's appropriate
for the government to help fund nuclear projects on the grounds that
achieving France-like nuclear usage means less dependence on foreign oil
and greater wartime flexibility for the economy. The real Eliezer
Yudkowsky predicts that these subsidies will backfire, be spent in the
wrong place, and probably interfere with the real plants.
A secondary point would be orbital solar power satellites, and associated
cheaper launches to get those satellites into space.
I'd say something about telecommuting, except that my libertarian self
doesn't see what government has to do with that, and my Extropian self
thinks that using less power isn't the answer here.
That's my answer, anyway. If you need *the* answer, I'd ask Jerry
Pournelle.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:11:02 MST