Re: [Sci.nanotech] Re: Too much concern for "safety"and"morality"and"ethics"
- From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 22:51:16 -0000
Phillip Huggan <cdnprodigy@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
The design space for assembler product includes a wide variety of military
technologies. I say sacrifice some performance gains and regulate MNT
very very heavily.
The military will never be subject to regulation. They get to build
whatever toys they like, in the name of "national security". In the
end, only peaceful purposes will be subject to meaningful
regulation. What such regulation will result in is lots of people who
could be cured of diseases dying, lots of toxic waste pits that could have
been cleaned remaining in the ground, lots of poverty that could have
been cured continuing, etc., in the name of an omniscient set of
regulators "studying the matter".
You don't want market forces in charge of WMD distribution,
and I can't see why you'd want the MNT owners to be the only players of the
post-MNT economy in a distilled version of the way only a few hundred humans
have any meaningful voice in the present "market" economy.
Look at the price of oil as traded on a couple of of the futures
exchanges. There are more than a few hundred people who participate
directly in setting the prices of those contracts -- it is hundreds of
thousands of people who are directly trading, and they're responding
to the demand decisions expressed by literally billions of people. If
markets could really be manipulated the way you suggest, then why was
OPEC unable to make its price and production targets stick for almost
20 years, through the 1980s and 1990s, in spite of the fact that they
were subject to no external authority and had (in theory) full control
of most of worldwide oil production?
Going wider afield, if your belief that markets can be manipulated so
easily by the powerful was true, why did the Hunts go bankrupt trying
to corner the silver market in the late 1970s? They were as rich as
rich gets. If your belief that markets can be manipulated so easily was
true, why are the "big three" US auto makers going bankrupt, when they
have all the political capital in Washington and hundreds of billions
at their disposal, and why are companies like Toyota cleaning up?
This belief you are expressing that the world's markets are controlled
by a couple hundred people is completely without basis in reality. Let
me bluntly call it is like it is: it is a totally absurd idea that any
educated person should make vicious fun of. One wonders who these "few
hundred" people are. Are they the Elders of Zion, one wonders, or evil
Illuminati bankers in Zurich, or both, Mr. Huggan?
Even a modest examination of real markets shows that no one is in
control but that the buying and selling decisions of billions of
people each have an impact.
By the way, if your belief that markets are all totally manipulated by
a few hundred people is true, you should be able to make a fortune
trading oil or other futures betting on the basis that these "few
hundred" people will always get their way. Even a couple percent edge
in prediction would swiftly yield billions of dollars in profits
starting from a modest starting stake. So, if you're so smart, why
aren't you filthy rich?
MNT-enabled mercenaries are to be avoided.
It is naive to believe that merely because a law is passed that the
law will do what people intend for it to do. I would love to live in
the world you do in which weapons can be effectively controlled that
way, but it is not possible. Handguns, machine guns, etc. are
completely illegal in many countries and yet routinely used in
crimes. Drugs are completely illegal in the US, and yet they are
routinely taken by prisoners in maximum security facilities. Should we
expect regulation of MNT systems to be any more successful? I doubt
it.
The intent you have in writing a law has no impact on how that law
will actually be enforced in the real world around you. Real laws are
administered by humans, not omniscient angels, and they regulate the
behavior of humans, not saints or angels.
Perry
.
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- Re: Too much concern for "safety" and"morality"and"ethics"
- From: Phillip Huggan
- Re: Too much concern for "safety" and"morality"and"ethics"
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