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by njarboe 82 days ago
I think these space projects are great, can create much good will, and give people dangerous things to do that are worth risking the danger for. But war, inequality, and climate mismanagement are political problems that are not going to be solved (if they need to be solved) by science and engineering (the first two at least).
2 comments
fc417fc802 82 days ago
If AGI stages a hostile takeover of all the governments of the world would that count as a technological solution to war and inequality?

For that matter I suppose the terminator timeline also counts. Can't have war and inequality if you don't have humans.

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ActorNightly 81 days ago
They can absolutely be solved by science and engineering, people just need to stop being so fucking afraid to break the rules to do whats right.
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njarboe 80 days ago
What does inequality even mean? Everyone must be identical? The idea of removing inequality is dystopian.
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ActorNightly 79 days ago
Solving inequality starts with everyone gets the same upbringing. Imagine designing a boarding school where kids get placed at an early age, and get all the support that they need to basically learn how to have control of the environment around them, while also how to interact with other humans to act as a force multiplier in accomplishing bigger things).

You could do this right now with a lot less money then it seems, the problem is that you have to break ethical grounds - for example, you have to have police or support staff that forcibly take kids from their homes if the parents resist this sort of education for their kids. If you don't do this, then you essentially are back to square one.

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squibonpig 80 days ago
Stopping the world's resources from being controlled and directed by a tiny fraction of its population isn't the plot of Harrison Bergeron
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njarboe 79 days ago
It would be great if everyone felt and was in a major way in control of their life. Equal before the law and not much law. The people who want to create "equality" by preventing people from accumulating wealth also want to accumulate power in the state. A tiny fraction of people will also be running a socialist state.

Aristocrats are going to aristocrat, as they say.

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squibonpig 79 days ago
What if I say I don't want to accumulate power in either of those places?
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njarboe 77 days ago
Would like to see such a system in action. Have any examples? Most go horribly wrong.

Early United States was pretty good but having a western frontier with "free" land was probably the enabling factor that no longer exists.

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