Re: poly: Dreams of Autonomy

On Thu, 2 Sep 1999 CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:

>
> In a message dated 9/2/99 9:19:06, pcm@rahul.net wrote:
>
> > CurtAdams@aol.com (CurtAdams@aol.com) writes:
>
> >>Certainly the current trend is for greater interdependence. If anything,
> >>the cutting-edge technologies that are looked on as the vanguard of
> >>nanotech (computers, software, biotech) are interdependent in the extreme.
> >
> > While there has been a clear trend of increasing rewards to more widespread
> >interaction, I don't any such trend in the dependence part of this. It looks
> >at least as easy for a small group to break away from society as it has been
> >in the past.

The degree of interdependence is determined, at least in part,
by the difficulty of replicating key technologies. In recent times I
believe there's been a trend towards this becoming more diffuclt. At
least, I can't think of any seventeenth century analogue to one of
Intel's chip fabrication facilities, to pick a single example.

If the replication of such technologies could be made much easier then one
obstacle to independence is gone.

Of course, it might be replaced by other factors working against
independence. I can imagine a world with nanotech where replicating
things like fabrication plants is "easy", if you've got the raw physical
resources and the intellectual property. Acquiring these last two may
give other impetus to interdependence.
 
Michael Nielsen
Ph: 626 395 8431 Email: mnielsen@theory.caltech.edu
Fax: 626 793 9506 Web: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/~mnielsen/index.html
Received on Fri Sep 3 09:28:22 1999