133 karma · joined August 2, 2018
petrocrat.at.hn
Since you are right. All of these things are available on Earth for far cheaper, with better ROI and with far less risk of dying or getting early cancer from cosmic rays.
The real benefit is a commanding lead over geopolitical rivals in the domain of satellites and satellite platforms for hosting devices in orbit, thus securing an insurmountable national security advantage.
This is a nice notion, but it's not how the existing literature (going back very long) generally uses the term "soul." Conventionally speaking the term soul is theological and has ties to modes of spiritual salvation as it is considered a substance that persists beyond human mortality. What you're describing seems more like the term "self" or "ego" or "conscious awareness" as those terms are used in philosophy. You're welcome to create your own definitions, but if they trample over the prior art of the terms in literature that is hundreds if not thousands of years old then that's going to almost certainly lead to the confusion you say you're noticing among people.
for what it's worth my drawing of "the part of me that is the observer" would look like some subset of the brain.
> But for a long list of reasons, I wouldn't use it for anything other than prototyping/hobby projects.
The effect of this on your diagrams is in diagram 2, with the intermediate farm animal, there are many situations in that scenario where the calories from those plants would be entirely lost, not simply rerouted losslessly to human consumption.
And how would you determine if it is too low?
For example would the calculation consider the current population? the current factory capacity? Agricultural capacity? the year? Interest Rates? Tax Revenue? The populations desired rate of saving? The current desires and goals of the nation and its citizens? If there is no exact formula, then would a representative body that debates and agrees on a best estimate number be a reasonable way to decide that? If so isn't that what congress does already?
Yes, there are a number of banks that have "Primary Dealer" [1] status which confers to them some benefits, but also makes them legally obligated to make some minimum number of winning bids on government treasury auctions. See the section under "Expectations & Requirements" in the link. Probably the most quantifiable requirement is they have to maintain a minimum of 0.25% market share in winning Treasury bids: "Maintain a share of Treasury market making activity of at least 0.25 percent."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fick%27s_laws_of_diffusion
2. How Do Primary Dealers Make Money? Primary dealers buy bonds directly from the government and then resell them to clients and investors at a slight mark-up. This small difference in price is how primary dealers earn a profit. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/primarydealer.asp
An honest comparison would only judge the externalities of solar in the light of the externalities of fossil fuels it is replacing, and not in isolation as you are doing.
While solar may use the grid as a giant battery, fossil fuels are using the atmosphere as a giant garbage dump. One of these is obviously much worse.
Do you honestly believe that is not happening now in ghastly amounts?
That is basically the definition of market failure, which is of course an acknowledged problem with the current economic system we have. That's why people are discussing alternatives.