Re: Barack Obama Pits Space Explorers Against School Children

On Dec 3, 9:42 am, Ian Parker <ianpark...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think I have dealt with that in another thread. I think personally
there is something to be said for a spike in the steering wheel.
Politicians and generals would take bigger risks if they felt they had
a bolt hole.

Most of the extistential risks are man made and the way to combat them
is to put in plave the appropriate controls, including controls on the
military.

But that idea makes no sense. How do you put in place controls that
control Iran and control al-Qaeda? What this sort of proposal means in
practice is that the world's democracies place one-sided controls on
their own militaries, which leads to an *increased* risk of a
nightmare world where the other side wins, and freedom is destroyed.

Yes, the risks are "man-made". But we're not prepared to control the
growth of world population. Terrorists and foreign governments aren't
under our control. So, limiting the options available to the people
trying to solve the problems, when you can't control the people
causing them, doesn't help matters.

If you are not careful you will find that space colonies actually
increase the existential risk, not reduce it.

They may increase the risk to Earth slightly, but the overall risk to
humanity as a whole, once the colonies are independent of Earth, is
clearly lowered. But my expectation is, instead, that once the enemies
of freedom are faced with the reality that the total destruction of
freedom is beyond their power, they will be demoralized, rather than
redoubling their efforts. And because all our eggs are not in one
basket, the West's leaders can take a calmer and more determined
approach to threats.

Since I see al-Qaeda, Sudan, China, and so on as being *all* the
problem, and George W. Bush as part of the solution, not the problem,
naturally I don't find that sort of option as likely to be helpful.

John Savard
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Barack Obama Pits Space Explorers Against School Children
    ... control Iran and control al-Qaeda? ... There are lies associated with terror too. ... United States or some other major power. ... increase the existential risk, not reduce it. ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Re: Super fast assembly and launch...
    ... that shows total disregard for safe operating procedure. ... This is the way moronic clubs ... There is risk inherent in everything we do - One assumes they did this with an airframe they had checked very carefully, and then practised getting it right, many times. ... As an exercise - consider whether there really was no control check. ...
    (rec.aviation.soaring)
  • Re: More power to the police in high speed pursuit
    ... control by the authorities for all. ... It puts the officer's life at risk ... There are two forms of speed limits. ... broken a law, hopefully a deterrent to further disobedience. ...
    (rec.autos.makers.ford.mustang)
  • Re: Purrs for Yoda
    ... The vet didn't ask me for a choice, ... the anesthesia risk and method. ... the biggest risk control is to leave him "under" for the shortest ... mentioned pain control *prior* to surgery ...
    (rec.pets.cats.anecdotes)
  • Re: Firewall security: Re: Problems with simple Samba file share
    ... > Peter T. Breuer wrote: ... Probability is risk "without taking into account a varying damage ... > and during that time I believe there have been two house fires. ... and need to control it at the IP level becuase you can't do it ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)