From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Sat Apr 19 2003 - 23:09:13 MDT
--- Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> wrote:
> I like to believe this, but I am not sure that this
> is necessarily true. It
> may turn out that it takes less resources to invent
> a big lie of niceness.
> For example, an eternal blissful afterlife instead
> of benefits in the real
> life. This could be perceived as nicer with less
> real costs today.
Actually, it tends to make people strive for that
afterlife instead of upgrading themselves and their
leaders in the real world. I offer as evidence the
very publicized majority position of religious leaders
towards science and engineering, both now and through
at least the Middle Ages. (Note I said *majority*.
There are certainly some religious leaders who are
unabashedly in favor of discovering the truth of what
we are and extending human capability, and for
treating
the results of said projects as human if they act
human, among other examples. Just not that many.)
Counter-meme: "Heaven on Earth - shall we build it,
and
live here forever?"
> It also
> may be more efficient to steal technology as it is
> invented by others rather
> than having to expend resources to actually invent
> the stuff.
In terms of total physical resources spent, it is.
However, those who do the inventing get to use it
first
- and they're often on to the next big thing by the
time you're done stealing and mastering their last
invention. Time is an often overlooked type of
capital, perhaps because it plays by rules rather
different from most other types.
> And,
> unfortunately, it may also turn out that it is
> easier to sabotage those who
> pull ahead rather than expending resources to catch
> up and surpass them.
For large projects, yes. See what the bioethicists
have done for biotech: chased it into smaller, harder
to track projects...and overseas, beyond their reach.
However, organizations that tend towards this kind of
behavior also tend to neglect their own research, and
technology still moots them in the end; it just takes
a
bit longer.
> It may just be a position of
> faith on our parts that
> the good guys always win and the bad guys always
> lose. (But I hope not.)
This thread is about offering evidence to try to prove
that hypothesis, or at least make a more conscious
decision about how likely it is, rather than just
taking it on faith.
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