Re: The End of Privacy /the World?

Michael Lorrey (retroman@together.net)
Wed, 01 Jul 1998 20:54:45 -0400

den Otter wrote:

> Anders Sandberg wrote:
> >
> > mark@unicorn.com writes:
> > > Anders Sandberg wrote:
> > > >In
> > > >the extreme case there exists some technology that allows you to
> > > >destroy the world from the comfort of your home;
> > >
> > > So what? If it exists then you get off Earth.
> >
> > Then you better make sure you have off-world tickets before black hole
> > generators (or whatever) become widely available in the stores. The
> > point is, you have to be able to move away *before* somebody starts
> > being dangerous. If you start to build your launchpad afterwards,
> > there is a real chance that it becomes a logical target.
>
> Yes, getting into space, and putting some distance between yourself and
> the earth asap seems like the only practical solution there is. Apart
> from the island project (which is the only alternative as long as you
> can't afford to get offplanet), it might also be a good idea to start
> saving for a space ship. ;-) The chance that things will go badly wrong
> within the next (half)century is too big for comfort. Certainly if you
> consider that it was already touch and go when only a handful of
> superpowers (considerably more stable than lone nuts/terrorists) had
> access to weapons of mass destruction. It's a shame Artemis and such
> will probably lead to nothing.

As long as its nothing but a moonlighting money maker for some NASA guys out to make some bucks off of the clueless, it will get nowhere. Their studies may be useful by serious businesses to make a go of it privately, but the real impetus will only happen when a practical method of using Helium III in commercial fusion reactors is available. When that happens, ships will launch by the hundreds, if not thousands.

On the individual sovereignty side, we are beginning to see the start of the migration to permanent oceanic living. The former Chairman of Norwegian Cruise Lines is heading a company that is building a cruise Liner called "World of ResidenSea" which will be a permanently occupied residential liner, with 286 condominiums. MAXIMUM condo price is $6.6 million. With the cost of cruise tourism dropping to the $200-1000 per day range, more and more people are taking cruises (more than twice as many people as in the age of the ocean liner as the only means of transoceanic transportation), which serve as an excellent PR machine for permanent oceanic living projects. Of the 286 condos on this residential liner, 65 are already sold, and the boat is not to be launched till 2001. 

--
TANSTAAFL!!!
   Michael Lorrey
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mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering
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