ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz | 151 comments (151 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (4.00 / 3)

Apocalypse is a rather odd fantasy. To be derivative, I think this quote by Alex Steffen pretty much captures what bugs me about it:

If things do come unraveled, they present not a golden opportunity for lone wolves and well-armed geeks, but a reality of babies with diarrhea, of bugs and weird weather and dust everywhere, of never enough to eat, of famine and starving, hollow-eyed people, of drunken soldiers full of boredom and self-hate, of random murder and rape and wars which accomplish nothing, of many fine things lost for no reason and nothing of any value gained. And survivalists, if they actually manage to avoid becoming the prey of larger groups, sitting bitter and cold and hungry and paranoid, watching their supplies run low and wishing they had a clean bed and some friends. Of all the lies we tell ourselves, this is the biggest: that there is any world worth living in that involves the breakdown of society.

Of course at some hypothetical point we have to ask what we're going to do to deal with a collapse rather than to avoid it. Right now I think avoiding is still a realistic strategy.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 07:41:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 0)

The question is, can ETopia be set up both to avoid the disaster and to deal with it?

Oye, vatos, dees English sink todos mi ships, chinga sus madres, so escuche: el fleet es ahora refloated, OK? — The War Nerd

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 07:46:49 AM EST
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Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 1)

Well... ETopia, if it is to prevent a possible societal collapse it would need to be well-known and copied in various ways. In the face of an actual collapse, that might be dangerous. I think we're probably better off spread out in society.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 08:20:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (4.00 / 2)

A strategy to prevent has been available for quite some time. In fact, many strategies. The problem has been- and remains- the will to act on any strategy. Since all strategy fails without the participation of the major polluters, that does not seem to be in the cards. So we are left with strategy to cope, and that is much less well defined. Since the US just pulled the plug on our next generation of orbital observational technology vis. global warming, the task of doing this strategy will be much tougher.

Does anyone else see a bizarre whiff of "end times" bulshit here?

It's as if the US were setting out to cripple any effort to cope, or prevent.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 02:09:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 1)

Since the US just pulled the plug on our next generation of orbital observational technology vis. global warming

Can you diary this?

BTW, the US is on the path to global irrelevance. If only we could convince the EU Council of ministers not to bin Galileo...

Oye, vatos, dees English sink todos mi ships, chinga sus madres, so escuche: el fleet es ahora refloated, OK? — The War Nerd

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 02:10:47 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 0)

Yes, I can. But tonight I am posting on my laptop, since a hard drive crash has put my main megaphone in the bin. Four trips to Surcouf has not solved the multiple problems- Video card, bad power supply connector (intermittent) as well as four new drives (mirror backup with RAID card and double array), so first things first.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 04:15:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 0)

Ouch, hope your array survives the other new hardware.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 at 03:18:50 AM EST
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Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 1)

Galileo needs a rational financing structure.

Also a bit of imagination in relation to the applications it enables.

The "soft" authentication available using a combination of GPS and mobile location technology would be perfect for a global messaging/payments/clearing infrastructure.

Iraq's access - post "apocalypse now" - to global payment systems was (I don't know if it still is) essentially via satellite onto laptops.

I was involved in a bid six or seven years ago for a new satellite based payment system for Iran, but we pulled the plug on the bid when at the last minute someone asked for a 25% "commission".

As I recall, a French system got the contract....

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

by ChrisCook (cojockathotmaildotcom) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 04:30:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 1)

It is easy to document the evisceration of climate science, but very hard to document an intuition, Mig. Multiple whiffs of fundie drivel, and some good reporting is what I have to go on- there are endless anecdotes describing Bushian refences to a fundamentalist world view-- perhaps the most classic is when Bush was asked how he thought history would view his presidency, and he replied that it did'nt matter because we'd all be dead--

A bad joke?
A glimpse into the gourdian knot of his head?

Dunno. That's why I put it as a question.

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.

by geezer in Paris (risico at wanadoo(flypoop)fr) on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 at 04:33:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz (none / 0)

The USA might head for political irrelevancy, but how fast will that reduce its fuel imports? While at the same time, China is fast rising as new big fossil-eater, and even while the EU does something, it's not enough.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 at 05:35:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]

ETopia: a Canticle for Leibowitz | 151 comments (151 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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