It's funny how people think a post-apocalyptic landscape will be relatively flat socioeconomically. At most they think there will be small-scale warlords or Dunbar-scale anarchist communes. No. There will be deathstar billionaires with private armies and narrow-deep tech stacks.
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The industrial age has made us (falsely) believe that an "industrial base" has to necessarily be a nation-state scale at minimum. No. A complete industrial tech stack can be built as a fairly narrow single-billionaire pillar.
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A traditional "industrial base" has steel, sulphuric acid, power plants etc. at the bottom, and space programs and aircraft carriers at the top. This kind of stack can now be replicated with a *very* narrow footprint. I think you could do it for $3-4 billion in a small city.
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Replying to @vgr
I did *not* expect to hear this take from you. Details???
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Replying to @vgr
Like, do you have links to estimates of what’s necessary for an “industrial base” & how much they cost? Have costs come down recently?
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Replying to @s_r_constantin
I mean why don’t you expect this thought from me? It’s a speculative first-principles hypothesis, not data-driven
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Replying to @vgr
Because you don't seem to want power. "Being king is super easy...but I'd rather not" is an odd combination of opinions.
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Replying to @s_r_constantin @vgr
Venkat going full Vassar, unexpected for me too. But he does not appear drunk with lust for power, just doing the Evel Knievel thing over 16 Greyhound buses. Very respectable :)
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Replying to @Plinz @s_r_constantin
You rationalists need to get out more among people who are NOT solving for world dominance. Us non-bond-villains are actually the majority you know. We just like the movies. Like right now, I’m solving for a snack within a minimum energy radius of my couch. That’s my Evil Plan.
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Who are these elusive people solving for world dominance that you talk of? Can I get an intro? It must be exciting to watch. (I am not even a rationalist, in the Bay area sense, even though I value the community.)
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