[TML] A Plague of Spacemen

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 10/11/07 10:37 AM, "Richard Aiken" wrote:

> On 10/10/07, Stuart Frew <stuart at frew.net.nz> wrote:
>>> Look at the trouble it causes here on Earth when we let technology go
>>> anywhere.
>> 
>> Ah, but what about humanitarian tech.
> 
> A problem in both cases is infrastructure.  If you help tens of
> thousands live who would have otherwise died, what are the cascade
> effects?  What if the planet's ecology won't support the additional
> load?  If you trade iron swords to one tribe, how will this effect
> your future market (after they start using them to massacre all the
> other tribes)?

We've demonstrated that in Africa.  "Oh, we must send food and medicine to
those helpless kids!"  Thus more kids live, making more adults, who produce
even larger numbers of kids, who need food and medicine the country doesn't
have & can't make.  My (heartless) take on Ethiopia?  It's a damned desert!
If you want to help them, move them somewhere decent to live!

If we can help make the country self-supporting, that's fine.  Otherwise no
mount of "aid" for symptoms is ever going to fix the *problem*.



On 10/11/07 10:37 AM, James Ramsay wrote:

> Also the core premise of the Prime Directive, that cultures mature until
> they are ready for certain technology, is the biggest load of bollocks I
> have ever seen.

Well, it's true in a sense, that say a hunter-gatherer society is not ready
for fusion power.  The trick is, in the closer instances, what gives you the
authority to decide for them.

> Star Trek is utopian fantasy.

Absolutely.  Trek isn't even SF.  It's science fantasy.



On 10/11/07 10:37 AM, "John Kwon" wrote:

> 
> Oh, I don't believe that cultures mature until they're ready.  I just
> believe that it's not a good idea to give certain toys to certain children
> until they've proven they can handle it.
> 
> A lot never do.

And that's true whether you're born in a yurt or a grav-city.  :)