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NEW_HONG_KONG

                                                  December 7, 2009
                                             Add: July    22, 2015


Paul Romer's Long Now talk
"A theory of history with applications":                PROMETHIAN_DREAM

Interesting because it combines the prometheian/technophillic
view I developed as a teenager coming out of the science fiction
world, with a recognition that there's something else going on,
and something else that's needed, an evolution of "rules" as well
as technology.

   Meaning:

   Capabilities to manipulate the material
   world, and restrictions on human beings--    A "technology" of
   or rather, organized structures composed     social structures.
   of human beings.

   The conclusion he comes to seems a bit
   incomplete, because there's little
   recognition of the potential down-sides             It's too bad that
   of the kinds of experimentation he's                the mp3 of the
   advocating.                                         talk is missing
                                                       the q&a period --
     To be fair though, all he's                       it's unlikely the
     literally saying is that we need                  Longnow crowd let
     to think about certain issues.                    him get away
                                                       without chiding
        The essential point he's making                him about his
        is that since we've seen some                  relentlessly
        odd beasts like Hong Kong turn                 positive tone.
        into phenomenally successful
        economic experiments, maybe we
        should think about creating
        more odd beasts.


           Instead of a gosh-wow talk about potential new gadgets,
           we have a gosh-wow talk about potential new legal regimes...





                                                      (Hm. Palestine?)




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