Conversation

Can you imagine a civilization that knows how to build rockets and spacecraft and has mastered orbital mechanics, but holds a consensus belief in astrological interpretations of the universe? Ie they can get to Mars, but their reason to go there is to meet the god of war?
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This seems absurd to me. A civilization that has mastered such an advanced means must necessarily have abandoned primitive ends along the way (at least among the principals involved in both the what and how if missions). Means-ends impedance mismatch.
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Either your means will stall at the limit of your primitive ends (you’ll pray to the war god) or belief on the primitive end will fail as your means evolve (Mars gets demoted from war god to dirt ball)
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Replying to
Have you read Stephenson’s Anathem? It’s about how far ahead of the general primitive-belief-holding populace an elite can get before being destroyed in a backlash. God of War-believers don’t go to Mars. Mars astronauts return to be lynched as heretics by God-of-War believers
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