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Saturday, December 07, 2013

Dumb Dvorsky Implies Alien Invasion A Greater Threat Than Climate Change Or Resource Descent

Yes, that makes total sense, especially if you've been rendered utterly artificially imbecillent by your long exposure to Robot Cultism. 

Reporting on a recent House Science Committee hearing on the subject of extraterrestrial life, Dvorsky declares that "[t]he ensuing conversation was fascinating, but at times infuriating." As evidence, he writes that when the witnesses were asked "what they considered to be the greatest danger to life on Earth... [t]he panelists' answers included asteroids, overpopulation, and somewhat inexplicably, the quest for energy resources."

In the comments to the article, "G30rge" registered understandable perplexity:
"somewhat inexplicably, the quest for energy resources." Because drilling at the bottom of the ocean and dumping thousands of gallons of crude into the environment is inexplicable in its effect on the environment?

To which Dvorsky responded, in a fit of pique:
Yeah, I seriously doubt that's an existential threat.

Oh, George!

One cannot make the point enough: futurology is not a mode of analysis providing foresight, it is a genre of hyperbolic corporate-military marketing to preserve or amplify (eg, "accelerating change," "technological progress," "disruption") the status quo for incumbent interests.

2 comments:

Esebian said...

Thanks for pointing out this gem; this one flew under my radar as the title made it look to be just another fluff piece about political boondoggles like the UN office for (space) aliens.

Communication with Dumbsky has proven to be as successful as communication with five yards of field road, so what do other io9 commenters think about the threat of ACC?

http://io9.com/this-blase-denial-is-both-ironic-and-aggravating-consi-1478965925

Oh...

Dale Carrico said...

Not surprised to see "Gryphoneer" is on the case -- io9's most right on with eir right on commenter, esp. since ey links to Amor Mundi occasionally!