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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   24615 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 8, 2024

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Can't we just get along...by going to Mars or something?

That's a much better idea, I have to admit.

And we do have a massive humans-to-Mars project getting underway, so a quick examination of the public discussion of it will surely reveal just the culture-war-free cameraderie we're looking for. Let me do a web search now, right after taking a big sip of water...

Alas, poor Yorick!

But really, I think if anything can still do it that isn't a war it's that thing that Nick Land calls the "Lure of the Void". Western man is constitutionally lusting for the infinite, and what's more infinite than space?

Based essay:

"The inexorable logic of techno-industrial efficiency, on its anti-gravity vector, means that the only consistent motivation for leaving the earth is to dismantle the sun (along with the rest of the solar-system), but that doesn’t play well in Peoria"

I am at least down with giving the Sun something of a lipectemy (heliectemy?) to extend its life. Would prefer it never be completely dismantled, for sentimental reasons. Maybe convert it into a constellation of red dwarves.

Uhh, a stable configuration of stars close by ?

I don't know about that. Even just two stars rotating around each other lose energy and end up in a gamma ray burst inevitably.

It's easy to say those things now but when the time comes, will you say 'no, we shall preserve this massive pot of wealth as a national park'?

Imagine a hundred million tonnes of gold and uranium. A trillion barrels of oil. A hundred Australia's worth of coal and iron ore. All of that is a rounding error compared to the Sun. Its value goes up into the wacky numbers, the sextillions and nonillions.

Didn't Land have a mini story with that exact premise? It was a corporate guy explaining that sentimental luddites won't stop the inevitable disassembly of Earth. But of course it would be "lovingly, even reverentially" digitally backed up for all to experience.

It's in the same essay.

Ugh, it was literally the next paragraph, now I feel dumb. Remembered seeing it as a standalone excerpt on his old blog

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