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Might want to consider the cost of anything floating,
staying on station, not sinking, being accessible for
harvesting etc gets compared to the price of a patch of
dirt which has no such problems. |
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Plus you don't have to worry about your vegetables
getting killed by the salt. When you coat a cucumber
plant with salt, you don't get a pickle, you get a dead
cucumber plant. |
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Might want to look into creating naturally ocean going
plants that are edible. |
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Before you say "seaweed", just because people eat
something doesn't mean it's
edible. Seaweed is not edible, I've eaten enough sushi to
know. It's primitive masking tape (with a more unpleasant
taste) that holds the edible parts together. |
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(+) I think this is already a thing, but under water. Give me a minute. |
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So let me do the math. With the system shown in the link, a
strawberry would cost.... hmm... carry the 3... add the...
factor in the... OK. One strawberry: $2,375. |
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Other than that, it's a terrific idea. |
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Yeah but that's just thinking short term.
We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon. |
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The way the folks running the show squabble like children has me figuring that near-coastal submerged real estate will be a valuable commodity soon.
We'll have underwater Shopping Malls before you know it. |
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One thing that gives me hope in that regard is Seacrete, where running a small current through a metal framework causes minerals in salt water to accrete into whatever shapes we can devise.
Growing seacrete along the edges of thick triangular glass panels suspended about waist height above the bottom of the seabed until they fuse would create water-tight domes anchored to the bottom.
Pump air from the surface to displace the water and farm oxygenating plants beneath each structure to scrub Co2 and bubble up oxygen. |
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Spacious two bedroom open-concept suites in Submerburbia, close to amenities, restaurants, and the Aquarimall, are currently renting for $1700.00/month.
{Subject to change without notice} |
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// We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon. // |
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<advertising blimp loudhailer> |
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"A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure." |
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</advertising blimp loudhailer> |
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Of course, not everyone gets to watch C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. But if you're happy with a below-minimum-wage long-hours job doing the equivalent of picking avocados or fast-fashion garment manufacturing in dangerous, squalid conditions with no healthcare or pension and subsisting on Soylent Red, then the the rest of the Galaxy will be quite happy to issue you with a short-term work permit, but not a residence visa. Oh, and don't even dream of bringing any dependant relatives. |
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It's funny isn't it?
Our first-world countries looking down on third-world countries while first-galaxy planets look down on our little third-galaxy planet. |
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HA! They're even making us pay for our own wall... |
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But back to the idea itself, what if we killed seven birds with one stone by using plant life to bind up the Gyres and create floating islands of agricultural land which currently don't exist.
They're each about the size of Texas. They rotate so all of the plants would receive at least partial southern exposure, and once all of the plastic bits have been bound up strategic use of sails and oceanic currents would allow them to eventually become autonomous countries as long as the remained in international waters. |
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I mean if we're going to farm on the water then let's Really farm on water! |
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//We need to spore outward into the universe or we'll be at 600 billion soon.// |
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Expansion away from Earth will have no impact whatsoever on Earth's human population density. |
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Current population growth on Earth is about 100 million per year. To send that many people to off-world colonies, you'd be looking spaceships carrying 1000 people each, departing every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. |
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<Obligatory Soylent Green reference/> |
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Not if you put the occupants in suspended animation, like the "B" ark in HHGTTG... |
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In fact, you can just freeze them. There's no actual need to be able to revive them ... and they're never going to know, or complain, are they ? |
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//Current population growth on Earth is about 100
million per year. To send that many people to off-world
colonies, you'd be looking spaceships carrying 1000 people
each, departing every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, 52 weeks a year.// |
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Moving to other planets won't solve the problems for
people on Earth, only those of the former Earthlings who
now have unlimited horizons to conquer and new land to
inhabit. |
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The problem of overpopulation on Earth will be handled
as it always has, by nature. |
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One possibility I'm fascinated by is the de-evolution
solution where clever man has overgrown the boundaries
that all other life has to live within and he gets replaced
by a dull witted bipedal farm animal that eats, shits and
procreates. The other path is we continue to "figure it
out". I think the latter solution is more likely, but the
former probably a possibility too. |
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Intelligence is a feature, like plates on the back of a
dinosaur, that may or may not be useful in the future as
environments and circumstances change. To believe that
intelligence is inevitable because it's the trump card of
evolution smacks a bit of orthogenesis, which is a
controversial biological hypothesis that organisms have an
innate tendency to evolve in a definite direction towards
some goal (teleology) due to some internal mechanism or
"driving force". (I cut and pasted that) I think the
programming all life shares is simply to live and expand
and is entirely subject to the whims of the environment
it inhabits. |
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If smart people are better suited to the current
environment, they win the evolutionary game. If stupid
people fare better, they will inherit the planet. |
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It grieves me to think that those Gia nut-jobs might agree
with me, and obviously I could be wrong, but I do think
that's one possible path for mankind. Harmless eating,
shitting, mating machines, living (and dying) in harmony
with whatever patch of dirt they inhabit. |
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Kind of like Philadelphia Eagles fans, only less dangerous. |
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Yup. Kansas is full of'em, too. |
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// a dull witted bipedal farm animal that eats, shits and procreates. // |
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The certain goal of the Democratic party since the day of its founding. |
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//Intelligence is a feature, like plates on the back of a dinosaur, that may or may not be useful in the future as environments and circumstances change.// |
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I'd have to disagree. The point about intelligence is that it allows you to cope with changing circumstances, unlike the dinosaur's plates which solve a specific and peculiar purpose. Thanks to our intelligence we can cope with changes in food, changes in predators, changes in diseases, changes in climate... Intelligence isn't a guarantee of success, but it does give you the equivalent of near-instantaneous adaptability. |
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For instance, we don't have claws, but we "evolved" them in the form of knives. We don't have wings, but we "evolved" aircraft. We can't see in infrared, but we "evolved" night vision goggles. We don't have gills, but we "evolved" SCUBA. We don't have a tough exoskeleton, but we "evolved" clothes and body armour... Intelligence is the ability to evolve any desirable trait on demand. |
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//The certain goal of the Democratic party since
the
day of its founding.// |
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Hey man, there's big money in moron farming. |
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Was reading a list of old, dead words that should
be
brought back like "kakistocracy": government by
the least
qualified or worst people or "fudgel": pretending to
work
while actually doing nothing. |
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Has anybody charted the decline of vocabulary in
our
culture? I'm curious to see if the average of 20,000
to
35,000 words is going down. Supposedly 8 year olds
know
about 10,000 words and they communicate most
situations perfectly well. In our increasingly
automated
world I'm not sure words like "surreptitious" or
"philanthropy" will survive as they'll simply never
be used.
Maybe they'll survive in some monastery like
facilities the
way knowledge was preserved during the dark
ages. |
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Or we'll just suddenly turn it around and we'll all
get
really smart for some reason. |
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Max, I agree that this feature of intelligence is the
bestest feature life has ever come up with for
adaptation and survival,
however it's still subject to one factor, that of
"requirement". |
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Been a lot of talk about our systems (AI) growing
and
taking on a "life" path of their own and possibly
deciding
they don't need or like us. There's also the
possibility of a
kind of merger of the two systems, us and our
computers
such that the computers take over the role
formerly
performed by our brains simply because they do it
better. |
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Don't you wonder when you see a group of kids all
staring
at their iPhones is this is the beginning of a merger
of
man and machine? |
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The rate at which these AI systems will evolve is
going to
be very fast. What will they replace? Why would
you ever
ask Doctorremulac3 a question about anything?
He's a
biological, they're as smart as a hamster compared
to the
universal AI monster brain thing. |
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I'm pretty fond of the idea that we're not going to
turn
into animals that only react to the sound of a can
opener
signaling dinner, but even if we don't all turn into
walking
eating machines, splitting into two paths is a very
possible thing that might happen. Dummies and
smarties. Evolution's been hedging its bets for a
very long time, creating two different paths and
saying "On your marks...get set...GO!" and not
caring who crosses the finish line of evolutionary
success. |
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Or not. Like I said, maybe we all just get magically
smart
for some reason, the so called "Flynn effect" which
sounds
like flat Earth science to me, but I could be wrong. |
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I think I'll stop saying "I could be wrong" twenty
times per
post. Let's just say that goes for everything I write
to save
some time. |
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Really would like to see that vocabulary chart if
there is
one. I didn't see anything when I asked the Godlike
Overlord Of Guided Learning Education. |
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Of course there's that weird evolutionary left turn
of
physical merger of man and machine. |
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You CAN ask Doctorremulac3 anything about any
subject
and he'll give you the answer because he's got that
neural
implant, but why would you? You've got one too. |
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Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go watch my
entire life savings turn to ashes as the stock
market collapses. Someday I'll look back on this
and laugh. Hysterically. In a padded room
wearing a
strait-jacket. (If I can afford it.) |
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// that weird evolutionary left turn of physical merger of man and machine. // |
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Thankyou for explaining that - now you have made it clear that you have a yearning to carry your teeth round in a paper bag instead of having them fixed in your jaws, we are in a position to offer immediate assistance. |
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I think what Max was saying was that after life
tried all
sorts of various tools to walk, climb, swim, fly,
eat, and
protect itself it finally came up with the "Swiss
Army
Knife" of evolutionary features: intelligence. This
can
replace all of these things as necessary and much
more
effectively than waiting around millions of years
for
evolution to figure out a solution to the problem. |
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He's saying "Why would this amazing product ever
fall into
disuse? It replaces all the things life has been
striving for
for millions of years." |
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Unless it gets replaced itself. |
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And what if we're not just getting dumber, what's
to keep
us from growing to 3, 4 stories tall? Women like
tall men. |
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Here's an
alternate picture to contrast with cities in the sky
and
flying cars: four stories tall and the brain of a
squirrel. |
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In my youth I might have used that as the title of a
song.
Maybe a rap/metal vibe. (Sung percussively with a
stupid
caveman style articulation) |
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"FOUR-STOR-IES TALL AND-THE BRAIN-OF-A-
SQUIRREL! |
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MONGO BITES! MONGO BITES!" |
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Although we probably wouldn't have names. |
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Plus the only thing I could think of that rhymes
with "squirrel" is "epidural" which would be pretty
hard to fit into the story line. Sometimes songs
just die on the operating table. |
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Oh this looks like fun... |
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FOUR STORIES TALL AND THE BRAIN OF A
SQUIRREL! |
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MONGO BITES! MONGO BITES! |
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SMELL SO BAD MAKE YOU WANNA HURL! |
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MONGO BITES! MONGO BITES! |
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GONNA GET WITH ALL THE GIRLS... |
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WATCH ME DO A BICEP CURL... |
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GOT A MOM HER NAME IS PEARL... |
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LIKE TO WATCH THE POTTY WHIRL... |
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(Used without permission) |
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Hey, that's pretty damn good. Frank Zappa would be
proud. (jealous actually) |
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What was that about vocabulary decline? |
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//watch my entire life savings turn to ashes as the stock market
collapses// |
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Commiserations. I sold everything on Wednesday. If it all
bounces back next week, you can point at me and laugh. |
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The Gia-tron matrix, a giant living mechanized omega molecule. Our designed/engineered systems as a natural symbiotic part rather than a colonizer/plasterer. A true Earthship. |
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Complexity approaching it's limiting factor. |
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//with "squirrel" is "epidural"// |
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So, no murals of Tyrol or the Wirral? |
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Have you a link to this Gia-tron matrix, [wjt]? |
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Rather more than a link; we have an unpleasant suspicion that the "Gia-tron matrix" and [wjt] are one and the same. |
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This would mean that [wjt] is a complex multicomponent intelligence, and possibly an aggressive hegemonizing swarm - meaning that we see here not only a competitor, but very likely an adversary and a potential threat. |
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Preemptive action is indicated, and it sure as hell won't be sending a singing Valentine's card. |
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[pertinax] No link. Just trying to imagine a concept beautiful Earth, if we could keep evolving in dynamic balance all the nature, reproducing, shitting ,designing and engineering in a holistic way. |
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A death star with bluer than blue oceans, green lush trees and icy white polarcaps. |
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[8th of 7] The high orders may develop intelligence with more dimensions but I would still only be, if assimilated, a lowly individual. |
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Told you. Told you. I'tll be the black cloak and the respirator mask next ... |
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// I would still only be, if assimilated, a lowly individual. // |
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That's exactly what you won't be. Not individual, anyway. |
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A Star Wars Death Star was only the simple design fraction of the possible. It's never assimilated the leaf and hence natures intricate systems. A Star Wars Death Star with a Dagobah swamp continent and the complexity may just start to get interesting. |
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[8th] put it this way, assimilating me won't allow access to any higher levels I currently have or are a part of. I may be an assimilated cell in Gia and wouldn't even know it. |
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So, is Gia any relation to Gaia? Or Chia? |
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Gaia, we think. Human isn't [wjt]'s first language. |
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