> Since I believe that only societies that discover capitalism will be
> able to develop the requisite technology,
One of the most impressive things (well, OK, the ONLY impressive thing) about
USSR was it's commitment to technology and space exploration.
In my understanding of Extropy, anrarcho- capitalism is seen as a means to
create the only viable economic environment which aids change and rapid
growth.
However, it is not technology per se that capitalism will foster, but the
individual freedom to utilize it to our own ends.
>>I doubt that we will find many
>star-roving socialist/fascist collectives - the only ones we do find
>will be ones that stole the technology from the capitalist ones, just
>like here on earth.
In anarchy, any roving band of anything can just as easily 'steal' technology
( if by that you mean figuring out what has already been done and
implementing it to eveil ends). They could colonize offworld, and under a
non restrictive government, do all and anything history has shown us humans
are capable of!
What the original post was asking about, IMO, seemed to be how we would be
percieved *developementally* as a culture, should we be able to propell
ourselves outward, and just how far along we are now. This concern over
technology developing ahead of our psychology is quite valid, and is often
brought up in a constructive manner. Sometimes it is used by Luddlike
characters to inspire fear of technology.
Again, to dismiss it, because we feel WE, as transhumnists, have evolved- is
not addressing a solution!
I hope we as a planet are evolving mentally and psychologically toward a
balanced, sane, rational state - it has been suggested that this takes work.
I personally see many people who I would not trust with a glue gun ; ) never
mind genetechs, SI weapons or replicators!