That was a great show! The callers: Gene, Ahmed, and the fellow between them whose name I don't remember... they were fabulous!
Here's a question I have. It sounds like Michael Mandel is almost certain that humans are headed for a cataclysm. To be honest, when you look at the world around you, it's easy to see all the evidence supporting this belief: the federal reserve ends up with negative non-borrowed holdings for the first time in its history; oil is peaking; the global climate is changing; nuclear proliferation shows all signs of continuing... The list goes on. Yet our species has weathered its honkpiles of cataclysms by now. We survived the plague. It doesn't seem completely improbable that at some point we survived a period of intense rain and rising water. Hell, go back far enough and we survived a giant meteor crashing into Earth and wiping out nearly all life. As recently as the '70s, we were all supposed to die in a new ice age...
Do you think there's any value in setting up a concern whose ultimate functional contribution would be to study the probable very-long-term outcomes of the present situation and to advise world leaders as to the best course of events -- or even to directly affect the course of events -- to steer us, as a species, past the next bottleneck as effectively as possible?
There would be many corollary fields of research. Is the next bottleneck knowable? If we saw it would we know it? Can we predict it? Do past bottlenecks serve as an indicator of future ones? What are the best financial instruments and incentive structures to make it pay to engage in bottleneck-averting behavior? Is there any possible way politicians, corporations, the courts, and public opinion could accept them without too much complaining?
What would such a company's exit be? Where and at what time does the money go in and out of such a concern?
them whose name I don't remember... they were fabulous!
Here's a question I have. It sounds like Michael Mandel is almost
certain that humans are headed for a cataclysm. To be honest, when
you look at the world around you, it's easy to see all the evidence
supporting this belief: the federal reserve ends up with negative
non-borrowed holdings for the first time in its history; oil is
peaking; the global climate is changing; nuclear proliferation shows
all signs of continuing... The list goes on. Yet our species has
weathered its honkpiles of cataclysms by now. We survived the
plague. It doesn't seem completely improbable that at some point we
survived a period of intense rain and rising water. Hell, go back far
enough and we survived a giant meteor crashing into Earth and
wiping out nearly all life. As recently as the '70s, we were all
supposed to die in a new ice age...
Do you think there's any value in setting up a concern whose ultimate
functional contribution would be to study the probable very-long-term
outcomes of the present situation and to advise world leaders as to
the best course of events -- or even to directly affect the course of
events -- to steer us, as a species, past the next bottleneck as effectively as possible?
There would be many corollary fields of research. Is the next
bottleneck knowable? If we saw it would we know it? Can we predict it?
Do past bottlenecks serve as an indicator of future ones? What are the
best financial instruments and incentive structures to make it pay to
engage in bottleneck-averting behavior? Is there any possible way
politicians, corporations, the courts, and public opinion could accept
them without too much complaining?
What would such a company's exit be? Where and at what time does the
money go in and out of such a concern?
What would its main fields of research be?
What would an employee's day-to-day be like?