[FRIAM] Fwd: A Theory of (Almost) Everything - IEEE Spectrum

[Steve Smith]

> I thought Merle was simply mirroring Eric's argument that a reliance on innovation is fragile. That point seems right to me.

Innovation is fragile *and* tech-optimism can be a runaway cycle.   I
have not tried to do an analysis but my intuition gestures in the
direction that *most* if not all of our technological innovations (i.e.
"problem solving") are solving problems introduced by some *last round*
of technical innovations.   I have (surprise!) abundant anecdotes.

Pandora and Prometheus would seem to be the stars in our TechnoUtopian
present.

> To Gary's point about too many humans:
>
> https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00305-6
>
> It's difficult for me to imagine a future for intelligent life on the planet without transhumans, whether cyborg or chimera.

Margaret Atwood spins a chilling/thrilling cautionary tale in her
Maddadam trilogy <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and_Crake>
(Oryx&Crake - book1).   I think we will see the likes of Pigoons,
Rakunks, and ChickeeNuggets before we start seeing Crakers, but it does
all seem too inevitable as we go tumbling willy-nilly, like Pachinko
Balls down the Dystopian adjacent possible of a TechnoUtopian vision. 
Maybe COVID foreshadows the release of BlyssPluss.

I suspect we are almost *all* TechnoFuturists and mostly TechnoUtopians
here.   I was born (under the rising sign of Sputnik) and raised in this
mold, but began to see that there is a need for some kind of tempering
wisdom for us to NOT run off the end of our resources, or destroy
everything that was precious in our pursuit of fantastical possibles.  

Pieter's conviction that innovation will solve all resource limitations
(apparently including a functioning biosphere habitable to humans) is,
in my opinion a strong example of the Red Queen problem
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race> which we are all
subject to in our TechnoOptimism.


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