I'd hope my use of sound effects would indicate a lack of entire seriousness. But to run with this idea for a minute... The initial environmental cost of shipping robots offworld to move the mining and refining there would very quickly become a net environmental and political gain. Strip mining, resource wars, refining within the Earth's atmosphere would all be reduced. Transitioning to higher technology economies reduces fertility rates, so this would reduce new bodies over time. Maintaining industrial society (with a reduced carbon footprint!) would maintain more existing bodies over time than simply waiting to drown or starve. This includes netbehaviourists... And turning the profits into UBI means that we aren't just treated as surplus population to be mourned properly when it's the economy rather than the environment that no longer supports us. So while (as with everything we are discussing) I am not entirely convinced by asteroid mining, I'm also not entirely convinced by initial rejections of it for environmental or philosophical reasons. it's not a simple environmental nightmare or offence against the natural order. The latter would be promethean anyway. ;-) Art can have an impact here. The popular imagination can be seized by or turned against these possibilities.... On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, at 12:05 AM, Annie Abrahams wrote: > a nightmare > you can't be serious Rob > > On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 7:21 AM, John Hopkins > <chaz...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On 26/Apr/16 21:39, Rob Myers wrote: >>> "One solitary asteroid might be worth trillions of dollars in >>> platinum and other metals. Exploiting these resources could lead to >>> a global boom in wealth, which could raise living standards >>> worldwide and potentially benefit all of humanity." >> >> Which means more effing bodies on the planet which means a dirtier >> nest. You know what goes into prepping the machines to get to an >> asteroid? You know what energy goes into raw ore refining? I presume >> this is a joke? or? >> >> Might as well start reading vintage L. Ron Hubbard... >> >> ... >> >> jh >> >> -- >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith >> twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > -- > Gretta Louw reviews my book[1] from "estranger to e-stranger: Living > in between languages", and finds that not only does it demonstrate a > brilliant history in performance art, but, it is also a sharp and > poetic critique about language and everyday culture. > New project with Daniel Pinheiro and Lisa Parra : Distant > Feeling(s) [2] > _________________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
Links: 1. http://www.furtherfield.org/features/reviews/personal-politics-language-digital-colonialism-annie-abrahams%E2%80%99-estranger 2. http://bram.org/distantF/
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