Change...

I've been on this forum for a while and have seen many topics discussed. One that hasn't been discussed is the accelerating rate of technological change and how it affects the political world.

Briefly, the rate of change is increasing. Technologically, things are changing and they are changing faster than they use to. And we should be very optimistic because of this. Because technology makes our life better (as long as we can avoid the 1984 scenario).

Consider the king of a country in 1900. I would say that a middle class person today lives better than a king in 1900. I'd even say a king in 1950 is not as well off as a middle class person today. A middle class person has better communciation, medical care, entertainment, transportation, etc. today than the most privileged person had in 1950.

And it is getting better. And things are improving quicker. The rate of change is accelerating. Moore's Law is a wonderful thing.

You and I live better than all the robber barons in 1900.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/ and read what Ray Kurweil has to say.

The "Culture" world mentioned in many sci-fi novels by Iain M. Banks is not that far away. I also think Vernor Vinge is on the right track.

What does it mean for our current situation? Many things. First, any projections 100 years, 50 years, even 30 years in the future are wrong. Global warning is a non-issue. Running out of oil is a non-issue. Technology will be so advanced in 20 years that those problems will be trivial.

Next, economic issues seem important now but in 30 years we'll all wonder what we were so worried about. Once space travel, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology kick in, everyone will affectively be a zillionaire.

Ron Paul (and our nations founders) have the correct foreign policy vision for the future. We have to learn to trade with our neighbors and allow our neighbors to set their own rules. Empire building will not be feasible in the future. Want your own country? Plenty of land on Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter. Plenty of asteroids to inhabit. No way will an empire be able to control the entire solar system.

So how do we get from here to there?