yeah being a serf is such a recent possibility.

i mean, come on. you think before there was less authoritarianism? are you trolling?

that is a given. unless we fundamentally change our economic model there will be no post-scarcity society. space exploration can help that change of economic model.

and how many are at this very moment in line for a chance to go? how many applicants for astronaut does nasa get every year? how many does chinese space agency?

there have been 600 people in space not because lack of willing candidates that is for sure.

depends massively on the future pricing of mining ore on earth. one can even deduce that needed regulatory restrictions on environmental damaging mining operations is a must have if we want to keep the earth habitable for humans.

unless you think everyone should either live in a cave or reduce the number of people by 90%.

yes that is the reason i enjoyed it. because its true, we could live in a post-scarcity society right now. but investors must be kept happy, so we don't. kind of spoiled these investors, wouldn't you agree? like babies, they are, to whom we must cater and obey, getting them fatter and fatter by the day.

why can't the resources be profitable?

astronauts go into space all the time, mostly for human progress.

depends on a single factor. do you want humanity to be imprisoned on earth or do you want humanity to colonize space. if you choose earth prison then yes we have more than enough resources. if you choose colonize space then no, we don't have enough resources.

but i enjoy that you said we aren't close to a post-scarcity society, and then you say we have far more resources than we need here on earth at the same time.

less kids die today. i guess if you just measure quantity yeah, you are correct. if you want to measure quality, infant death is a great metric.

cottagers in the late 1700 where specifically? and what percentage of population where these 1700s cottagers? 0.001%, 0.1%, 1%, 10%?

society is way better in every metric possible. that is just a fact. ted, please, your manifesto was wrong. idealism is not a metric.

way better than before, that is a fact. it has problems, yeah. but by every metric possible the industrial revolution was a net positive for all. well at least for humankind.

it will take us to a de facto post-scarcity society. the amount of resources in immediate vicinity of earth will fundamentally change our way of viewing property.

it will also create space industrialization thus leading the way to levels of human comfort that we can't even imagine, all without destroying our environment.

it will *be a net positive for all...

edit: added a word, laptop getting weird today.

unfortunately, real diplomacy has no rules. but the advances in using previous knowledge to create incremental improvements in the search for agi is a sign that the rate at which ai discoveries/inventions are being made is increasing.

imho the biggest problem is the current economic system.

development requires stability.

solar and wind are cheap to developed countries because they already built the infrastructure needed, a coal power plant is a permanent source of energy, and an already established tech.

yes for homes in isolated villages solar wind is an improvement. for industry and services in a large city, not so much.

i don't even understand how this opinion can, in any way, be controversial. how the fuck are poor countries going to develop sustainably without the help from developed countries?

and for rich countries investing in sustainable development in poorer countries is a de facto investment in the future of their own children, so a investment in their own future prosperity.

how can this be even remotely controversial?

we accept the challenge. we need people to take care of us in our retirement.

nice. the single author takes centre stage. get ready for some really weird shit.

a true ai will be a type of intelligence fundamentally different from human intelligence. by understanding how intelligence works in true ai we will be able to compare it to our own works. thus increasing the knowledge of both.

for me, true ai is a great tool to really understand human consciousness and intelligence. it will provide a point of comparison that we lack.

the scientific and philosophical ramifications of true ai are huge.