From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2003 - 20:49:49 MDT
In the process of investigating some material for a paper I
ran across a recent report by an European physicist who was
allowed to visit North Korea.
Impressions From a Visit to North Korea
http://www.inesap.org/bulletin20/bul20art31.htm
I found the article educational and a bit different from the
spin we commonly get on the DPRK in the U.S.
It raises a quite interesting perspective at the end...
"Most Westerners, living in affluent conditions, put high value on
democratic behavior of institutions, on freedom of speech, on human
rights. People in the DPRK may set priorities differently."
As many know, I was soundly beaten down after 911 for suggesting
that the solution to the problem (of Osama) was to simply to nuke
Afghanistan on the basis of utilitarian arguments. I'll simply
note that nearly 2 years later the U.S. hasn't solved the Osama problem
and it has probably managed to alienate several 10's of millions
of people (if not more) by our actions over the last 2 years.
[In case it isn't clear -- what the U.S. *is* doing doesn't seem
to be working very well...]
Obviously given the recent DPRK announcement that they have processed
more fuel rods for nuclear weapons raises some interesting questions.
Some that come to my mind are:
a) How do extropians/transhumanists deal with very strong cultures
with very non-western priorities? (Be they through cultural history
or brain-washing?) [This relates to the question of how does one
interface with a culture that "sets priorities differently". Is
one going to "brain-wash" citizens of the DPRK that western perspectives
are more correct than those they have grown up with their entire lives?]
b) How does one deal with the entropic issue that the diplomatic
route may ultimately be extremely wasteful? Though I'm sure Nick
will not appreciate my citing his paper in this context, his
"Astronomical Waste: The Opportunity Cost of Delayed Technological
Development" paper
http://www.nickbostrom.com/astronomical/waste.html
helps to shape the discussion.
The numbers speak for themselves -- 10^14 potential human lives
per second of delayed interstellar colonization (minimum).
So lets see,
Afghanistan (pop: 28m), Iraq: (pop: 25m), N. Korea (pop: 22m)
So we could eliminate the problems distracting us from making
progress at the cost of < 10^8 lives -- compared with 10^14
lives *per second* while we keep debating how to resolve the
problems...
Ok, I *know* you are going to rake me over the coals again.
Don't bother (been there done that) -- I'd rather see strong
arguments that justify a suboptimal extropic vector (perhaps
one has to sacrifice optimal paths to practical considerations).
It is just starting to look like each U.S. citizen is on the
hook for about ~$350 this year for activities in Iraq and
we already have a huge sunk cost (in nuclear weapons) in
the means to eliminate that expense (ignoring Afghanistan
& N. Korea).
Robert
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