[FRIAM] thread bent toward Utopian/Dystopian Singularities

[steve smith]

On 7/11/25 7:44 AM, glen wrote:
>
> https://www.mbdialogues.org/
>
> "We invite groups and individuals who are interested in organizing 
> discussions about mirror biology to submit an expression of interest 
> for funding."

The "Strange Attractor" path we are on is closer and closer to any 
number of possible exit routes from the Basin we know as the Holocene  
than we have been before?   Crises tend to bring out the innovation in 
us (for better and for worse)?  Or is that just a neo-Darwinist fallacy?

I think most of us here might fit the technoProgressive 
<https://ieet.org/philosophy/> title, though clearly we have those whose 
lens is technoUtopian while others are more cautious.   My contributions 
are mostly just contrarian, hanging as far out the other side of the 
boat as I can to keep it from tipping immediately into a "weak" or 
"fizzled" singularity.  Is there a clean path into the singularity or is 
it (socioeconomic) "tidal forces" all the way down?  I sometimes feel 
like a mid-level surfer knowing that the next "big one" is actually a 
Tsunami and I might as well paddle out toward it and see if I can catch 
"one last ride" knowing it likely ends rather dramatically bad for 
everyone whether they are "riding the wave", "running for high ground" 
or "cowering in a bunker"...

Re: Mirror biology.  My  nephew, a freshly minted materials scientist 
specializing in phase change materials (PCM) , unable to enter the very 
"chilled" job market, will naturally be drawn to ICE9 development?:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine

?Fortunately? I introduced him to Wellstone 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Queendom_of_Sol#The_Wellstone> via 
Wil McCarthy quite young, so programmable matter is more his style. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacking_Matter

    <random aside>Unfortunately he's "stuck" on a QC line for a company
    which Uses PCM to build milspec field-portable human-blood
    coolers/heaters.  Their only customers now are US (and maybe IDF?)
    special forces because of the cost of the units (and the value to a
    small combat team far from support in saving a life).   But they are
    trying to re-engineer into the more general EMT space.  No more
    arm-to-arm transfusions like in WWII movies?  Is Seal Team 9 fully
    constrained to have compatible blood types?</aside>

McCarthy is one of those fascinating SF writers who has a firm foot in 
the more serious Sci/Tech world.  For better or worse, his patents and 
inventions have barely made it above water... barely. He's making his 
living as a patent law guy right now.  His flagship company is going 
forward without him.

    https://www.ravenwindow.com/

With MTG (marjory taylor greene) pushing weather-manipulation 
conspiracies (leading to vigilante attacks on weather-radar 
installations?) I think of J. Storrs Hall Weather Machine 
<https://web.archive.org/web/20090826074614/http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people-blog/?p=2637>.  
But it is his Utility Fog <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_fog> 
that I find most profound (in the vein of McCarthy's Wellstone). With 
Hall's Weather-Machine swarm I suppose we could implement the most 
grandiose version of the Vegas Spher possible?  Or maybe

Grey Goo <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_goo> anyone?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

addendum re: Ice IX/9 (is that the name of one of Elno's 
as-yet-unclaimed children?):

    While *none* of the 20+ known water ice polymorphs behaves like
    Ice-Nine, some have exotic traits:

      *

        *Ice VII*: Stable at high pressure, can exist at room
        temperature if compressed

      *

        *Ice XI*: Ferroelectric, proposed for astrochemistry

      *

        *Ice XIX* (most recent): Still under investigation

    But *no known phase of water ice propagates itself through ambient
    liquid water like Vonnegut’s Ice-Nine*.

Attribution:  GPT4o


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