Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry

From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Mon Jun 24 2002 - 22:08:54 MDT

• Next message: Damien Broderick: "Singularity at Asimov's"
• Previous message: Natasha Vita-More: "EXTROPIC SALON/SOIREE AT THE GETTY"
• In reply to: Anders Sandberg: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Next in thread: Lee Daniel Crocker: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Reply: Lee Daniel Crocker: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

At 04:06 PM 6/24/02 +0200, Anders wrote:

>Treating a symptom (lack of food and lack of food production)
>without dealing with the cause (lack of rule of law, lack of respect
>for human rights) with replicating technology can be extremely
>dangerous. If the leadership/thugs of such a region could use these
>technologies to strengthen their hold, say by making weapons, they
>would welcome them.

I've made the following reading recommendation before, but here it is
again: in 1959, Damon Knight published a scary novel called A FOR ANYTHING,
about the consequences of a `gizmo' that could make perfect copies of stuff
quickly and cheaply. The book was profoundly subversive of the
techno-utopianism prevalent in the sf of the day (all the nuclear anxiety
aside). Still worth a read. There should be 2nd hand pb copies around. An
ebook version is at

http://www.rosettabooks.com/pages/title_68.html

Damien Broderick

• Next message: Damien Broderick: "Singularity at Asimov's"
• Previous message: Natasha Vita-More: "EXTROPIC SALON/SOIREE AT THE GETTY"
• In reply to: Anders Sandberg: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Next in thread: Lee Daniel Crocker: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Reply: Lee Daniel Crocker: "Re: STATE-OF-THE-WORLD: It makes you want to cry"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:00 MST