tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199060302024-03-14T00:06:15.229+01:00novosolariaBased on a principal assumption that Humanity eventually has to emigrate from Earth to survive itself, The Novosolarian Codex debates required technological, political and other developments required to achieve this goal.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1164922931241391132006-11-30T22:38:00.000+01:002006-11-30T22:42:11.250+01:00Hawking about Space: I want to go, and we all shouldStephen Hawking said tuesday: "Humanswill have to colonize planets in far-flung solar systems if the race is to survive" - well finally someone with access to decent airtime gets to say it. Read more at <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061130/ap_on_sc/stephen_hawking">Yahoo! News</a>Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1160892184729357132006-10-15T08:00:00.000+02:002006-10-15T08:03:04.740+02:00Everybody wants to go to the stratosphere these daysCNN has an article on China entering the Space Tourism race:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/13/china.space.tourists.reut/index.html?eref=yahoo">http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/10/13/china.space.tourists.reut/index.html?eref=yahoo</a><br /><br />Along with all the other Sapce tourism events these last 6 months it seems, that we a re in the middle of a new period for Space travel, still limited by govenment institutions and economical barriers, but the very amount of projects going on are important to the development and testing of new technologies that might one day make cheap, widely proliferated Space travel a reality.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1155039875180032722006-08-08T14:22:00.000+02:002006-08-08T14:24:35.190+02:00NYT gets it! - newIn brief, the New York Times lines up the issues addressed in this blog in the article about the <a href="http://www.arc-space.org/">Alliance to Rescue Civilization</a>.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1154424063131495742006-08-01T10:29:00.000+02:002006-08-02T00:50:24.050+02:00Will we take our demons with us into Space?Inspired by an important point raised in a message from Chris Phoenix, Director of Research at <a href="http://CRNano.org">Center for Responsible Nanotechnology</a>, I would like to mull over a principal issue. Chris says in a comment to the basic assumption of this blog:<br /><br /><blockquote>"if we can't solve our problems on earth,and we take our problems into space with us, then although space access may save a fraction of humanity, it may be extra-bad for most of humanity."</blockquote>I agree that in a desperate race for the escape hatch, we could face all sort of unpleasantries coming down on us. These might include (but not be limited to) world-destroying nanoformers run amok, interspecies war, human factions fighting over space resources, widespread social injustice, a disseminated society forever outside the rule of "International" law etc.<br /><br />Seen in this perspective, the use of space travel as a means for surviving our inability to resolve the internal issues of Humanity actually constitutes a total faliure for the use of concepts like morality, law or decency for governing people. We should spend our efforts on learning to live with each other in pan-species harmony or at least in tolerable "cohabitation". While Chris is not argumenting for any kind of halt to space development, he does say that we should accelerate our problem solving right here. My point is, that a pragmatic way of solving our problems is to realize that many fractions of Humanity have insurmountable differences and their ways should part. Preferrably by emigration into space.<br /><br />The pessimist would claim that the current events in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Chechnya, Indonesia - all over the place, in fact - even in the heart of Europe, could be seen a precursor to a WW III between the western civilization and radicalized Islamic societies, with the conflicts powering radicalization.<br /><br />An optimist (hard to find currently) would say, that the conflicts of the world will eventually force the world powers to solve the generations-old injustices brought unto the peoples of the Globe by colonialism and imperialism, and to solve them by peaceful, political means (including peacekeeper forces).<br /><br />After getting that part of it together, and finally able to take on the stars as a unified community, we will spend one or some centuries figuring out how to protect our spacefarers against gamma blasts from dying stars, terraforming nanobots on steroids, more war (again, and now with much worse weapons), and how to get our bodies and minds to work in step with this new enviroment. Time will also be needed to ensure the proliferation of affordable space technology.<br /><br />But the whole point of the message from this blog (summed up in the <a href="http://novosolaria.blogspot.com/2005/12/novosolarian-codex.html">Novosolarian Codex</a>) is, that we dont have the time required for that project available. I guess I am a pessimist. I think Good is more fragile than Evil, even if it is better seen from an universal perspective. As decribed in the post about <a href="http://novosolaria.blogspot.com/2006/01/dilemma-of-technological-criticality.html">the Dilemma of technological criticality</a>, global technological and political developments are running faster into a ultra-high-risk-domain than we can imagine at the moment. Also I think that as long as anybody claims any values to be True or Everlasting or Ultimate, we will have conflict. Only an unlimited playing field will allow the civilisations to cohabitate, and direct the pressure away from the geographical and mental borders. Insisting that your adversary must deconstruct himself totally (like in the conflict between Hizbollah ind Israel) is not likely to result in cooperation. At least if unlimited space cannot prevent some people from speculating in conflict, at least it gives you the chance to run away.<br /><br />I respect Chris's view, but I think we need to start thrusting both feet deep in the water right away - no toe-dangling. Then we can correct matters eventually, but the planet is just not big enough for all of us and our miserable onflicts. And 200 hundred years down the line, will this course of action result in a larger sum of accumulated unhappiness than staying here and fixing ourselves right before moving on?<br /><br />I think not. The human capability of inflicting harm on other humans and to do so with great inventiveness is simply too mind-boggling to consider Earth an even moderately safe place for the next couple of centuries. As to speculations about who should/might/probably will emigrate, this will be a subject for a future post (I am writing it already).<br /><br />Kickstarting space colonization will NOT be a walk in any park we can possibly imagine. The toll will be high and there is no guarantee of success. But we have to try it. It is our destiny, it is what we were born for, to explore, migrate, run away, conquer - call it what you like. And yes, also to live in peace and prosperity with our families in our community of choice, but right now it is getting increasingly difficult to do so.<br /><br /><br /><hr /><br /><br />Thanks to Chris Phoenix for valuable feedback on this post. Check out his blog at <a href="http://crnano.typepad.com/">http://crnano.typepad.com/</a> to get updated on Nanotechnology, responsible use of.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1152686452443706342006-07-12T08:36:00.000+02:002006-07-12T08:40:52.456+02:00Bigelow Aerospace to launch inflatableSee the article at Yahoo! News describing the project created by Robert Bigelow - an old Russian ICBM will sometime this week bring a 1:3 scale prototype of an inflatable space station module into orbit. Could this be one of the required Liberation Technologies we need to escape Earth?<br /><br />Also check out <a href="http://www.bigelowaerospace.com">Bigelow Aerospace</a>Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1152509682931117282006-07-10T07:34:00.000+02:002006-07-10T07:34:42.970+02:00A case for and against terraformingHow do we make sure that other worlds can actually support human life to the extent required for colonization? Traditionally Science Fiction has been operating with envirosiuts, bases, even domed cities. In latter decades SF has used terraforming as the tool of choice to create habitable real estate. Either by the generations-long, more philosophical and roundabout way of introducing moss, saxiphrage and orbital mirrors to a dormant ecosphere, or a more direct way like nanoseeding with self-replicating microscopical robots or even crashing the odd ice meteor into your average Martian Desert.<br /><br />Let us here take a look at both the practicality, morality and Novosolarian suitability of terraforming as a tool to increase humanity's living space, enabling the ultimate principal purpose of letting humanity escape its planetary prison and, thus, itself.<br /><br />Is it OK?<br />Seen from a moral perspective, terraforming challenges all and any environmentalist credos, no matter the tool selected. If one chooses the more slow, "natural" tools like the fungus, algae, mosss, small plants employed for the purpose in Kim Stanley Robinson's "Green Mars" trilogy, classical environmentalists might be liable to support the project more easily. Less likely to get support from the local Green Paty will be stuff like heating up Europa (the moon) with thermonuclear devices or spreading gentically enhanced rock-breakers on Mars.<br /><br />But never the less, the basic proposition remains the same: Put a planet (or planetoid, moon, asteroid, rocky object, whatever) in a chemical, meteorological and biological blender and get something else entirely. <br /><br />Now this kind of activity leaves us to look at the nature of the concept Nature. What is it? A pristine, static, untouched state of being or a steady flow of chaos? In either case, Man is part of his nature - not isolated from it. What we today on Earth want to protect under the "Nature" label is in fact often directly or indirectly created by Humanity or at least heavily influenced by humans. What we create is as much a part of nature (since we ourselves are natural) as anything created by bacteria, fish, earthquakes or trees.<br /><br />So conservationism is actually in this case highly hypocritical, unless it clearly states that what it wants to conserve is not an "original" state of being of a particular slice of the environment (since such a state is an illusion), but in fact a specific state judged to be desirable due to some attributes (number of trees, specific species, cute looks, you name it.), and especially if we can claim that nothing to be declared as Alive loses that status or its ability to support that life in its present environment. We can slow down the present extinction rate, even circumvent it via gene banks, but we can never "go back to the original Nature" or even stop the process in its tracks.<br /><br /><br />Can it be done at all? By us?<br />So, rudely brushing aside any moral qualms over terraforming (TF), we will now look at the practicality of the matter.<br /><br />First of all, it is going to be hugely, no, mind-bogglingly expensive. As long as the entity that wants to terraform something is based on a money economy (where the distribution of GSD (Getting Shit Done) is done by mutual tokens with a central controller), it will be prohibitively expensive. Much more likely to succeed with such a task will be a hegemony or a dictatorship. An interesting prospect is the chinese non-democratic capitalism. It does get to build dams....<br /><br />Time is an issue here. Multi-generational TF-projects will more often than not fail due to changes in politics, the underlying economy, geological events, falling space elevators, whathaveyou. To increase the likelyhood of succes, a terraforming ploy/scheme/conspiracy/vison should be based on fast-acting remedies like nukes, meteors, nanobots, chemical avalanches or viruses, not slow-moving stuff like moss, however cute it may be.<br /><br />When is such a project finished? Will we see classical 80/20 solutions where anyone can walk the surface of Mars with a sweater and a breathing unit, but never breathe freely, since turning the Red Planet into Earth II would cost the rest of the 80% of the money?<br /><br />What climate is ideal? South of France? Equator in India? Swedish Spring? Any religious preferences?<br /><br />But is it good?<br />Even considering the ethicality, the costs and feasibility, as well as the Rightness of this kind of adventure, does terraforming support the political agenda of Novosolaria? The point being that we need to establish an emergency exit for humanity as fast as practically possible, the immediate answer is no. It is way too slow. It requires herculean efforts on multinational governmental levels. We are not sure of the outcome, some people might be against it on a principal basis, and they might even try to stop it by using force.<br /><br />But on the other hand, not terraforming means condemning humanity to live in spacesuits, caves and domes forever, limiting freedom of movement and enterprise for the individual to a tightly controlled artificial space - until we discover the Holy Grail of space exploration - a readily habitable planet, not occupied. If we define that as the basic required condition to start emigration, we will never get out of here before an eventual cataclysm.<br /><br />The conclusion seems to be that we need to continue studying techniques that helps us establish artificial Earthlike environments while at the same time spend effort on the long haul of terraformation, even though it seems very unlikely to solve the challenges, and in the short run is practically useless as a solution. Spaceships, excavated asteroids and domes are the tools that could help us off-planet fast.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1147700181874778962006-05-15T15:34:00.000+02:002006-05-15T15:36:21.890+02:00Spaceport flurryOver at Big Purple Yahoo! News you can read all about the many plans for building private spaceports all over the US. Seen from a classical aerospace POV, this would be required for a global airport-like infrastructure, but what we really need is still som kind of technology that can be used by non-governtment users and allow our escape as indivuduals or free groups.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1144703737275339932006-04-10T23:09:00.000+02:002006-04-10T23:16:41.063+02:00A prayer for the universeOh any lord<br /><br />free us from our prisons<br />from the body and the Earth<br />from our conscience and our fears<br />from the flesh and its limitaions<br /><br />give us the ability to become like gods<br />that we can tour the universe and see<br />that there is no greater greatness<br />than the sum of it all<br /><br />take away the burdens of toil<br />that we can live as free agents<br />give us a way away from the flames<br />so we can live our lives<br />according to our wishes<br /><br />grant us wisdom so we can see<br />all the way from the beginning to the end<br />and testify to the full greatness<br />of all creationChristian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1135639028056963032006-02-09T00:16:00.000+01:002006-02-11T23:33:21.166+01:00Infrastructure of independenceIt has traditionally been held that collective transportation systems, communal housing etc. is the less wasteful and most efficient form of infrastructure. The more, the merrier. Synergy and large-scale advantages. We are generally assuming that even if communal infrastructure can be difficult to build and get support for, it is more economical, reasonable and environmentally friendly than individual solutions. But this is not necessarily the most attractive way seen from a novosolarian point of view - what we need to build is feeder infrastructures, independent constructions building on existing patterns.<br /><br />A couple of examples: We could build a bus system running on existing motorways using packet-switching properties, treating individual travelers like IP packets, switching them this way and that according to traffic patterns, some of them optimized according to price, others to travel time. From buses to vans to cars to vans to buses again we could transport people from specific address to specific address in their own time - bridging the taxi system with the bus system. Call this a "SUB".<br /><br />Another example: Distributing food with the mail system. We have a global transportation system with some latency, but it works. Why don't we use it for distributing food to famine areas?<br /><br />Basically what we need to do is to use the existing infrastructure better instead of expecting the UN, the US, the EU or some other major agency to build the new ones we need.<br /><br />Humanity needs independent infrastructures, not ones tied to governments or their derived organizations.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1138015038091558872006-01-23T12:17:00.000+01:002006-01-23T14:09:17.400+01:00Space News Blog - Spacecraft, heal thyselfSpace News Blog has a piece titled <a href="http://spacenews.dancebeat.info/article.php/spacecraft-heal-thyself">Space News Blog - Spacecraft, heal thyself</a> about self-repair mechanisms inspired by blood coagulation. A different road could be to look at Lichen that can survive full space exposure and then be revived just by adding water....Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1138007717317565252006-01-23T10:15:00.000+01:002006-01-23T10:15:17.406+01:00NASA Postpones Mission to Visit Asteroids - Yahoo! NewsThe Dawn mission is indefinitely postponed, see <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060122/ap_on_sc/asteroid_mission;_ylt=AhTPnJiPnwaIFNz_sP0DxnKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MzV0MTdmBHNlYwM3NTM-">NASA Postpones Mission to Visit Asteroids - Yahoo! News</a>. But this should also bring to mind the dilemma of how we want to spend our space dollars (and yen, yuan, euros). Should we concentrate on scinece in its purest form, to understand our solars system or or focus on space habitation, setting up shop our there and then let science be more of a field study?<br /><br />If China should decide to follow that kind of strategy, it is very likely they would be able to establish, say an asteroid base, before the more experiences Space nations.<br /><br />It could also be interesting to know my about Space ambitions of other, right now non-exisitng players like India and the Moslem world. How do they see space exploration and the future for them there in Saudi-Arabia? - Surely they would have the cash for that kin of endeavour.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1136243340054442842006-01-03T00:09:00.000+01:002006-01-03T10:09:58.626+01:00The Stewardship of Space - Acton Institute PowerBlog<a href="http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/657-The-Stewardship-of-Space.html">The Stewardship of Space - Acton Institute PowerBlog</a> describes new proposed regulations for private space flight. This is a perfect example of why we need space travel technologies that are cheap, free and widespread and why we cannot rely on the Space Elevator to free humanity.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1136239513735212302006-01-02T22:43:00.000+01:002006-01-02T23:57:49.836+01:00Dilemma of technological criticalityWhen we look at the enabling technologies that might finally catapult the human civilization into space, several of them are actually also possible enablers for our own extinction. The challenge will be to develop them in a world of constant conflict and internal hostility in order to escape that conflict and hostility.<br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2253/841/400/criticality.0.jpg" border="0" />Let's look at an example: Nanotechnology. We have earlier believed that both nuclear weapons or genetic technology could be contained by national regulations or non-proliferation treaties, but none of these seems to have worked. One of the arguments against any fear of rogue states or terrorist getting their hands on nanotech-based weapons could be, that this kind of technology is wildly more expensive and complicated than anything else available. The same kind of argument could have been made against the spread of nuclear weapons - the Manhattan Project had a budget that was larger than the American car industry of its day. Yet today we realistically fear dirty bombs and even amateur nukes based on nuclear explosives that are missing from Russian stockpiles or dealt illegally. Countries like India, Israel, Pakistan and possibly North Korea has nuclear weapons. Iraq was once underway to get them and Iran is being suspected of wanting to have them. The US is seriously considering to change its own nuclear doctrine in order to be able to bust deep bunkers, some analysts even postulate that Japan might be a nuclear nation one day and who knows what the Russians are up to. This should more than prove the point that once the genie is out of the bottle, it will never fit back in. <p>Now, nanotech is characteristical in the way, that the more sophisticated enabling technologies are, the more potentially dangerous they are. Nanotechnology holds a mind-boggling promise and equal threat. So how can we make sure that we survive the dawn of the Nano Age?</p><p>Beats me. A suggestion: work fast. Nanotech is weird in the way that a lot of its applications have been designed before the technology is available. Everybody is just expecting the technology to force itself into existence to fill the many dreams it has fuelled. So another suggestion could be: work the most important bits first - meaning the stuff that is needed for space travel. Escape the dilemma of criticality.</p>Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1135596501256314692005-12-26T12:28:00.000+01:002005-12-26T12:31:18.123+01:00Mars Hopping MicrorobotsRobots.net has a piece on small spherical robots that NASA considers to pour over Mars in order to research the entire surface of the planet. These could be considered the forerunners of planet-transforming nanoseeds.<br /><br /><a href="http://robots.net/article/1746.html">Mars Hopping Microrobots</a>Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1135594248478846482005-12-26T11:32:00.002+01:002005-12-26T12:17:40.716+01:00Why robots?Why are robots so important to the future survival of the Human Race? As I postulate in <a href="http://novosolaria.blogspot.com/2005/12/novosolarian-codex.html">The Novosolarian Codex</a>, we will have to develop very advanced robots to achieve the Exodus. And a lot of them as well. This is important for a lot of reasons.<br /><br />First of all, we need scouts. Humans timespan is still extremely limited, and to investigate the Solar System, and later on, the Galaxy, will be a mind-bogglingly timeconsuming challenge. It will be vary dangerous for humans (a little less so for robots), and it is assumed that artificial minds will not be plagued by boredom and similar byproducts of spacetravel. Hordes of robotic probes will pave the way to space for us.<br /><br />They will investigate entire solar systems for asteroids, planets and orbital positions of interest for habitation or material/energy resources.<br /><br />After they find attractive places to colonize, they will prepare the arrival of humans by constructing more robots, energy plants, habitation units, bases, cities, spaceports, farms. These robots will probably have some nanotechnological properties, they might even be planet-transforming nanoseeds.<br /><br />Once we arrive, they will build defenses, robotic service units, industrial production plants, spaceships and planetary transportation infrastructure.<br /><br />We will ourselves be blended with or modified by the robots. Organs will be replaced by artificial or improved variants to prolong our lifespan. Bones will be protected against the inevitable weakening in space by alloys or modifications. Nanorobots will patrol our bodies and remove dangerous agents or mutant cells.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1134768626523411902005-12-16T21:47:00.000+01:002005-12-17T17:40:12.393+01:00Widespread, easily available space travelWhat does the concept "widespread, easily available space travel" as defined in the <a href="http://novosolaria.blogspot.com/2005/12/novosolarian-codex.html#links">Novosolarian Codex</a> actually mean? The basic principle must be that we want to improve the human condition and liberate technology. So the first evident answer is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator">Space Elevator</a>. The idea of a system that with a very small amount of energy moves large amounts of people and related stuff into orbit. Once we are there, going places are cheap.<br /><br />Well, yes, the space elevator is the cheap way of reaching if not the stars, then the planets, but it is not the FREE way. If it is ever brought into reality it will be the most heavily patrolled and controlled means of transportaion in the history of humanity. It will definitely not be a tool for the liberation of the masses. Governments will control who can and when they can use the space elevator. And it will be a prime target for terror attacks.<br /><br />What we need is something similar to <a href="http://www.moller.com/skycar/">the skycar</a>. A system that can be documented, replicated, improved on, is individual and independant. Why is the car so important to Americans? It is the ultimate symbol of individual independence. We need something like that for space travel. The only present relevant projects are, IMHO, Skycar and <a href="http://www.scaled.com/">Spaceship One/Scaled Composites</a>.<br /><br />We don't have it yet, but once we have a system that can bring individuals into space without the consent and discernment of their governments, we have true personal freedom.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1134763568225972582005-12-16T20:51:00.000+01:002005-12-16T21:31:49.853+01:00Thud! Review: Rock Solid!!!!!Terry Pratchett has more than done it again - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385608675/qid=1134762788/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/203-8787362-5919116">Thud!</a> is another masterpiece. Pratchett has increasingly been writing novels that not just mimic/debate elements from our world in a Discworld setting (like "Movin Pictures"), but are now about the discworld itself (yeah, right, I know there's all sorts of terror/mideast/mulim-christian references). Thud! is such a novel, describing new elements of dwarf and troll culture, a curse, weird happenings beneath Ankh-Morpork and (his grace) Samuel Vimes (or "Insert Name Here", as his Gooseberry calls him) at his very best, and the invention of a new board game, while we are at it. A definite page-turner. Exiting, extremely funny, scary, original, free of restraints and practically written for quotes. The pleasure of pure genious. Harry Potter, go <em>ghugh</em> yerself. Only drawback is the fact that Terry is more or less only able to get around writing one book every year. A piece of advice for the man: You are on a winning streak right now, exploit it and keep that keyboard clicking.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19906030.post-1134687548883136232005-12-15T23:56:00.000+01:002005-12-26T11:07:31.920+01:00The Novosolarian CodexThe next 200 years are crucial to the survival of humankind. It is very difficult to describe exactly was has to happen to still be there at that deadline downstream in time, but if we project forwards and then back again in time, some thing as are evident:<br /><br /><strong>We have delevoped widespread, easily available space travel and have started to use it for colonizing the planets and asteroids of our system.<br /><br />We have conquered a lot of the basic limitations of the body, including cancer, infections, autoimmune decease, organ replacement etc.<br /><br />We have developed a global/civilizationwide network of readily available computational power that makes us independant of place and time when conducting the business of being human.<br /><br />We have developed artificial intelligence in artificial bodies that equals or rivals our own capacities and helps us meet our goals.</strong><br /><br /><strong>We have delivered on the promise of nanotechnology and genetics in order to solve the above challenges.</strong><br /><br />These things HAVE to have happened in order to secure the survival of humanity beyond this period in time. If they don't, we won't. It is as simple as that.<br /><br />The basic assumption here is that no global religion, administrative system, political movement or nation construct will be able to prevent, harness or destroy the underlying currents of religion, nation or tribe. So we need to break free of each other.<br /><br />On the other hand, these developements do not guarantee the continued freedom and existance of humanity on their own. We will still see the abuse of power, atrocities, dictature, bigotry, sexism, terrorism, curruption etc. They will forever be part of human existance. We will have to create safe havens, pockets of resistance.<br /><br />Any political philosophy claiming that one day all people will behave because of The Rule of God, Democracy, Money or whatever, is doomed to fail. There will never be One Brotherhood Of Man under any flag. But we can have our Paradise, our Zion, our Ur if we create them independently in the Universe.Christian Schadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11527234505630479244noreply@blogger.com0