Re: 10 Questions for Friends and Subscribers!

Channel:

neotoy

Subscribers:

1,910

Published on June 21, 2008 6:33:34 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtRvKd_U8kk

Duration: 5:12

345 views

2

TRANSCRIPT:

1. Do you believe peak oil has been reached, has been surpassed, will be reached soon, is far away or is a silly theory?

I don't think it matters what I believe about peak oil, we have the computational resources necessary to accurately predict the current and future profitability of oil. I think this is too important of a question to be left up to market speculation and personal conjecture. What concerns me is that humans tend to habitually engineer this type of scenario, and it's usually the resultant uncertainty that causes economic catastrophe.

2. Do you believe humans are the major cause of global temperature changes, global poisoning, both, or neither?

Once again, we have the technology to model and define the scope of our global impact as a species. So I think it's clear that we already have these answers, it's just that we're not applying them to our industrial activity. If we did it would probably mean a 95% reduction to the economic activity of first world nations, and an end to everything technological we've accomplished since the advent of mechanically assisted agriculture.

3. Do you trust genetically modified foods?

As much as we claim to know, genetic science is still a relatively nascent field. New discoveries are being made every day, each has the power to alter the current paradigm of understanding. Therefore I judge the risk to be extremely high and the potential benefit very low. Most of the problems addressed by GM technology are sociopolitcal in nature, not the result of genetic characteristics. Attempting to solve them indirectly, with limited understanding, will most likely only compound the problem. So my answer is no.

4. Do you believe elections are rigged, are fine or think elections are nonsense either way?

Political power is just like money, the more that's at stake, the greater the probability that special interests will actively pursue illicit methods to tip the scales in their favor. To me this question is like asking "can we trust the banks with our money.". I think the recent credit crisis shines some light on that analogy.

5. Do you believe the Government owns you (and your children)?

Who would honestly answer "yes" to this question? I'm going to skip it because I think it's absurd.

6. Do you believe you can be charged with a crime without physically harming a person or property?

That's up to the law to decide. Do I respect the rule of law? No, I respect the rule of reason, but that doesn't exclude me from judgment under the law. Likewise laws are only valid if they can be enforced.

7. Do you think the USA Empire is headed for collapse?

The concept of an empire is fundamentally flawed. Any political system that relies solely on conquest and domination to persist will inevitably collapse. The USA however is not exclusively an empire. I think that the empire aspects of America will collapse, while the greater communal and cooperative elements will slowly supplant them.

8. Do you think people can live free without a central government?

Yes, it's called a tribal system and it worked exceptionally well in America for hundreds of years before the general psychosis and genocidal tendencies cultivated in Spain and England were foisted upon native Americans.

9. Do you believe using the violence and force of government is a valid answer to solve problems?

Self-defense is the only kind of violence that has ever made sense to me. But even that term has become ambiguous thanks to modern warfare and manipulative politics. Problem solving implies strategy, violence however implies brute force. These are ultimately two divergent paths, one leads to progress the other to destruction. Humans seem to be the only species capable of choosing between the two, but they can only make the right choice if they are united and believe in the possibility of a better future.

10. Would you force your views onto other people because you thought your way is the only way to live or do you believe there is no one right way to live as long as you are not harming/coercing others?

This is a great summary question and touches on many of the previous points. Yes I do believe in a hypothetical "one right way to live", but that is something that human civilization needs to discover collectively. Any attempt to create such a system artificially is going to fail. Energy can not be created or destroyed, and neither can a system that allows that energy to interact in the most efficient manner. These processes will emerge organically or not at all.