From: EvMick@aol.com
Date: Thu Aug 28 1997 - 08:02:46 MDT
In a message dated 97-08-28 04:51:03 EDT, you write:
<< or the stronger power would
obliterate the weaker, and then immediately rebuild itself, and then
expand spherically at a good fraction of the light speed. A Yes
answer to (2) would presuppose that a negotiated merger isn't made,
and that neither power can know with a great probability that it is
strongest, or that the stronger power has some absolute ethical
prohibition from attacking its weaker rival. >>
Interesting...but I've got some problems with the whole argument.
Driving a truck crosscountry I regularly comeacross some of the so-called
"Homeless"....in actuality they're no more homeless than I am...or rather it
could be argued that I am, in fact homeless as well (live in an
18-wheeler--live outa backpack...difference in degree)
To stretch an analogy...I don't mug every (or even..any) homeless bum I
encounter...he has nothing I want.
Why would a nanotech society be interested in conquest and expansion? All
the traditional reasons for such are presently evaporating ...with
increasingly functional nano-tech they will vanish like a snow-flake in a
welding arc.
If I had functional nanotech...and a siphon going into the ocean...or a tap
into a gas line...or even a nice handy landfill or septic tank...(raw
materials you know)..I can't conceive of any reason to exploit ANYONE...and
since it effectively didn't cost me anything ....I'd be real likely to give
away my discards...the stuff I've grown bored with...(like that articulated,
all terrain, urban assault vehicle with the smart wheels..)
Wouldn't cost me anything...
Once again I think were having trouble "mapping" a society of abundance over
our preconceived ideas generated from a society of scarcity.
There HAVE been (relativly speaking...to their time and techno advancement)
societies of abundance in the past..(rare...but there have been a
few).precolumbian pacific northwest is one I beleive...and certain cultures
in the Pacific Islands...
They represent mature cultures...it might be instructive to review their
methods of social interaction...when eveyone was "rich"
EvMick
KC Mo.
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