Re: Politics, economics, irrationality are real phenomena.

From: Alex Future Bokov (alexboko@umich.edu)
Date: Sun Aug 24 2003 - 12:58:46 MDT

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    [quote from: Samantha on 2003-08-24 at 02:13:03]
    I would suggest that a smaller lever is sufficient if you don't buy that you
    have to move great masses of humans to support your cause in order for it to
    happen. A smaller lever might require for a fulcrum being able to work
    outside what the masses of humanity understand, know about or have
    sanctioned.

    I agree, and this is how science often is done nowadays. However, this is
    not foolproof-- as the stem cell story, the banning of human cloning, the
    crippling limitations on animal use in research, and the recent demise of the
    DARPA futures market demonstrate.

     Another worthy fulcrum is escape from heavy taxation and deep government
    monitoring of gathering capital and resources.

    I'm always on the lookout for ways to do this. Although, truth be told,
    research in many fields is very, very expensive... so expensive as to put
    funding out of reach of most individuals and into the realm of corporations
    and governments. Even the few individuals rich enough to personally fund a
    typical program project grant are not themselves scientists-- to get that
    rich, they have to have specialized in making money from the beginning. As for
    corporations, they are under constant pressure to deliver short-term profits,
    and this is a disincentive to blue-sky research with high/unknown risks and
    high/unknown payoffs. Furthermore, corporations face a free-rider problem from
    competitors if they publicize the results of their research, yet without open
    publication there is massive duplication of effort and the overall rate of
    progress slows down. This may change as the lifespan and wisdom of investors
    increases... but for the time being, what we're left with is government as the
    main patron for many types of basic research.

    I regard this as a major problem Libertarians have yet to offer a solution to
    other than assurances that it simply won't happen once government gets off
    everybody's back. Sort of a Friendly Market argument.

    I do have some thoughts on how to maximize political leverage given the
    short-term inevitability of government dependence, but am thinking about how
    to phrase it so that it doesn't get used against us should people from the
    list start taking this approach (remember, every single thing you say here is
    placed in a publicly accessible archive on extropy.org). Private queries from
    individuals interested in discussing this in the meantime are welcome.

    ----
    This message was posted by Alex Future Bokov to the Extropians 2003 board on ExI BBS.
    <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=67;action=display;threadid=56850>
    


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