Why We Can't Solve Big Problems

Re:Why We Can't Solve Big Problems by loup-vaillant on Thursday October 25, 2012 @11:43AM (#4698014)

[…] On a larger scale, the Council inaugurated a set of projects ambitious both in scope and name, intended to be Manhattan Projects for a new age: Project Eden sought clinical immortality, Project Janus sought FTL travel, and Project Icarus sought to use solar satellites to harvest the light of the sun, making energy not just cheap, but free. With these accomplishments, the Council sought to win eternal loyalty from its citizenry.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7406866/15/To-the-Stars

Now we're talking grandiose programs that could very well have the support of the population. (Even project Eden: give people actual hope of escaping Death, and most will cease to object.) If a governance actually successfully triggers such accomplishments, I'm sure going to like it more.

Now if we stay down to earth, Friendly AI is probably the best bet: it looks less impossible, and would have much more impact.

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Re:Why We Can't Solve Big Problems by eli_gottlieb on Thursday October 25, 2012 @12:58PM (#4698348)

You another Methods of Rationality reader?

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Re:Why We Can't Solve Big Problems by loup-vaillant on Thursday October 25, 2012 @03:30PM (#4699103)

Actually, I studied the conspiracy's¹ Scrolls² before reading it, but… yeah.

[1] http://lesswrong.com/

[2] http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences

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