From: Avatar Polymorph (avatarpolymorph@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Nov 09 2002 - 01:02:58 MST
Extropians and Socialism...
I doubt politics, sex, rejection in love (unrequited love), religion,
culture, art, personal feuds, humour, decision making and resource
allocation are ever going to fade away (at least, not for a while anyhows).
On the other hand, unchosen death through illness and old age (at least for
us), taxes and money are things that will be temporary (money is a few
thousand years old, neurological death a few hundred million years old).
I should say I don't think Americans understand socialism or social
democracy in general. They tend to constantly confuse communism and
socialism. Europeans understand these concepts.
Interestingly, the statistic for current wealth share of the top 1 % in the
US has shifted from 90% in 1900 to 20% in 1970 to 50% in 2002. 50% of the
wealth is the same proportion for the top 1% of the population as existed in
the ancient Mediterranean generally around the time of Caeser (with 25%
being owned by the ruler and 25% by the rest of the 1% class - the
bureaucracy and army constituted about the next 5% of the population and got
a better deal. Then came artisans and peasants etc. and about 5 to 15% of
destitute people, depending on population growth and disease etc.
My own point of view is this: I support dissemination of information about
mechanisms of production and dissemination of such production itself.
Self-reproducing assembler technology must be open to all (except perhaps
those who want to make hydrogen bombs with them!).
Think about this: the software for most goods (i.e. information which can be
loaded into an assembler) we use will be all finished very very quickly.
Then it's available for millions of years without further effort. Also:
don't forget Drexlerian molecular supercomputers which can undertake
engineering problem solving. Fast design, fast modification, a huge
permanent bank of information on everyday items (for assemblers).
Towards Ascension!
Avatar Polymorph
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