Re: NANO: Institutional Safety

Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Tue, 16 Nov 1999 10:21:17 -0500

Robert Bradbury responded to David Blenkinsop:
> > In the _Diaspora_ novel, the transhuman societies somehow maintain what
> > they think of as a wisely nonexponential or nonexpansive security
> > arrangement, where they leave enormous tracts of natural resources
> > completely untouched.
>
>There is a declining Return on Investment as you get bigger because you
>have increased communications delays and power costs. Until we adopt
>fundamentally different time scales for entertaining "thoughts" (weeks
>or months) it may not make sense to utilize all of the natural resources.

Robert, twice in the last month or so you have made claims like this. The first time you made many long posts, and I offered some detailed contrary analyses (last on Sept 18). You then stopped posting and privately told me you didn't have time to discuss it then. A few weeks later you again made several long posts, and when I challenged you to respond to my earlier analysis, you (on Nov 5) suddenly said publicly you didn't have time to talk more. Now again you start again posting on this topic. So, do you want to discuss this topic or not? Or is it just that you don't want to discuss it with me?

Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323