I think you overstate the case, though I agree simulations can only
play a minor role for now.
>The question of the optimal social structure is explorable primarily by the
>study of history, a fact that futurist technophiles are often prone to
>overlook.
I take issue with "primarily". Data about current social structures
can tell us a great deal - you don't have to go back in time for data
to be useful. Laboratory experiments also tell us a lot. And theory
is very important for giving one concepts and hypotheses with which to
understand empirical data. Without patterns to look for, history
doesn't say much.
Robin Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/