[FRIAM] on the obustness of globalism

Steven A Smith sasmyth at swcp.com
Thu Feb 2 11:09:41 EST 2017


> Steve writes:
>
> "I learned early in life that if a canoe is tipping to one side, you 
> don't lean out the other, you drop to the bottom center, lower your 
> center of gravity.   Why is that so hard in sociopolitical contexts?  
> Unless you want to tip into the drink!”
>
> Except that if we tip it over, we can swim over to that jet boat that 
> is a hundred meters away.   (See the thread on the 10 meter diving 
> platform.)
>
I think I get that part.... I grew up with a fascination with 
post-apocalyptic worlds and sci-fi themes of transcendence.  I still 
have a soft spot for it.  We have in our local circle (but surely not on 
this list) a near-inner circle Singularian, the futurist/author Steven 
Kotler: http://diamandis.com/abundance

I put more stock in complexity thinking than exponential thinking.

Your logic is the only hope I hold out for this Trumpian regime.  He is 
a loose cannon who is in the process of clearing the deck of our ship of 
state.  I just hope he manages to do it without snapping off the masts 
and the wheelhouse, and then careens overboard before he sinks the 
entire ship, rats and all.  Maybe there IS an awesome, high-tech 
ship-of-state or ship-of-society just over the horizon or beyond the fog 
of culture-wars ready to sweep us up and jet us off into some 
unspecified utopian future, but I'm not seeing it.

I also outgrew utopian fantasies when I realized they were a thin 
disguise for a dystopia.   I'm still fascinated with the dual of 
utopia/dystopia, but I'm not easily taken in by the idea that when you 
can't react fast enough *already* to the things appearing on the road in 
your headlights, that you should just *drive faster*.

- Steve
>
> Marcus
>
>
>
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