Let's put the future behind us
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Let's put the future behind us
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Re: Let's put the future behind us
#2Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#3Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.
Yes. The content is sometimes interesting, but he so enjoys having a good erudite rant, that I fear accuracy takes second place.
It's his own personal blog, and a fan echo chamber. So that's fair enough. But it's tiresome.
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#4I'm sure he's right, while there's only one O'Neill colony. But I can't help thinking that after a couple centuries of exponential growth, when there are millions of them, that it will be a boon for human freedom.
I'm not convinced that such extensive surveillance will be necessary for safety purposes. Detectors for explosives, and security around critical points like airlocks, is likely to be sufficient.
Ultimately, when we can build them out of carbon nanotubes instead of steel, we'll be able to make them much larger: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKendree_cylinder
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#5The article was interesting, but am I alone thinking that those tenebrous, click-baity titles are bad ?
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#6I'm sure he's right, while there's only one O'Neill colony. But I can't help thinking that after a couple centuries of exponential growth, when there are millions of them, that it will be a boon for human freedom. I'm not convinced that such extensive surveillance will be necessary for safety purposes. Detectors for explosives, and security around critical points like airlocks, is likely to be sufficient. Ultimately,…
Keep up that rate of progress for 15,000 years or so and we'll have proper space habitats:
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#7Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.
Either it is the Scottish weather, or it is his way of dealing with a serious case of tech burnout, from being in the thick of the 90s Internet boom in UK.
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#8Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.
Yes. The content is sometimes interesting, but he so enjoys having a good erudite rant, that I fear accuracy takes second place. It's his own personal blog, and a fan echo chamber. So that's fair enough. But it's tiresome.
Not limited to his blog. There is a video of a recent con panel on the topic of Cyberpunk where he goes on a rant of some kind.
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#9I'm sure he's right, while there's only one O'Neill colony. But I can't help thinking that after a couple centuries of exponential growth, when there are millions of them, that it will be a boon for human freedom. I'm not convinced that such extensive surveillance will be necessary for safety purposes. Detectors for explosives, and security around critical points like airlocks, is likely to be sufficient. Ultimately,…
Keep up that rate of progress for 15,000 years or so and we'll have proper space habitats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_%28The_Culture%29
If the singularity folks are right it will take a lot less than 15,000 years, exponential growth is terrifying in that context.
Re: Let's put the future behind us
#10Maybe it's just the stuff people end up linking, but Stross's blog always seems so negative. It's a bit of a drag.
Yes. The content is sometimes interesting, but he so enjoys having a good erudite rant, that I fear accuracy takes second place. It's his own personal blog, and a fan echo chamber. So that's fair enough. But it's tiresome.
Reality checks are valuable. It is better to get the depressing stuff from a good writer.
But sure, there is some spin.
You might note about e.g. the Netscape browser example that Microsoft got into legal boiling hot water. And the shuttle abomination, which gave NASA a motivation to use its heavy influence to stop cheap space launch, delayed real space projects by decades; if it end up with humanity extinct because we lack ways to stop a new dinosaur killer, we deserve it.
And so on.