RE: Benefits of space access (was Re: From the NSS LIST)

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Aug 03 2001 - 18:24:58 MDT


Robert Bradbury writes

> Alex wrote:
>> 3. When we stop expanding, we stagnate. No further
>> explanation should be necessary to this audience.
>
> Ah, but must it be expansion in the *physical* reality?
> If you think about the evolution of computer architectures
> from CISC to RISC to Transmetas compilable hardware
> there isn't any real physical expansion at all. There
> is however a huge expansion of the idea space.
>
> Going back to my quote from Eric -- if the way you can
> organize a 1 nm cube of atoms is 10^148 then it is going
> to take you a *very* long time to explore that simple
> phase space -- nevermind the number of atoms in the
> solar system. And in the phase space of computational
> power, you don't want to get bigger, you want to get
> smaller. You want to shrink -- not "expand".

Relating this to another interesting thread that I'm
following, you *definitely* want to expand. Distance
is perhaps the best defense against an out of control
or threatening agency.

But we need not *choose* between them!

Lee Corbin



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