Quote from: anu on March 04, 2014, 04:18:26 PM

Quote from: Biomech on March 04, 2014, 09:50:59 AM

Further, and this is something I have been hammering on since I was a child, why the FUCK are we limiting ourselves to Earth? We have the resources, we have had the technology since the late sixties,....

That is the conundrum, isn't it? Why are we limiting ourselves?

I studied aerospace engineering around the time of the fall of the Soviet Union and it was 100% clear to us then that the age of conquering space would start and we would open a new frontier. Instead, all the money went into a crazed and de-regulated banking sector which is why I ended up working for banks, helping them to "invent" all sort of "innovative products".

We squandered the peace dividend.

Quote from: Biomech on March 04, 2014, 09:50:59 AM

I reject utterly the underlying axioms of this thread, and have for longer than the internet has existed.

The fiscal-financial complex is the parasite that is eating us alive. But if we make redundant the BANK with all sort of technologies which can be build upon the blockchain concept (contracts...), I will agree with you: The boost to the economy this will cause will be so massive that this thread will look ridiculous.

But right now it looks like the state propaganda works: Occupy doesn't see centralization of power as the problem, but as a solution. The vast majority wants more of the same. As a result, this thread looks like it has merrit.

See my long ass post. I agree with you. But I also see glimmers of hope. I became aware that I was an anarchist about 15 years ago. Talking about it raised shields and eyebrows. Now people don't dismiss me out of hand, and will even argue the merits with me. Kids, especially. They come out of high school pretty much a blank slate of unthinking slogans, but the human mind didn't evolve that way. Inside those teens, as annoying as they are, is a working brain. Reaching it is often difficult, but once you do, great things happen. As has always been the case, the youth are our future. And they are comfortable with the technology that spells the death of centralization.