Robin Hanson is a pretty smart guy. I knew him back when on the Extropian Mailing list. We had a few words.
I believe that he is wrong about the megacities...Virtual Reality eliminates their need.
I also question EM...consider an augmented human instead.
cybernetic plug ins anyone?
Yes the little I heard/read/watched about the EM was a bit much for me.
As an idea, I found it interesting, like I would a sci-fi novel, but as for the reality or existence of such a "world", I had trouble actually picturing and believing possible.
Augmented humans seem a plausible direction that some may accept, but I am not sure I am on board personally... I don't sleep well enough as it is and I just can only imagine having that possiblity of allways being able to "plug-in" and "keep going".
Augmented humans have been with us for quite some time. There have been wooden legs since the days of whaling and the Civil war, false teeth even longer. Today the tech is advancing MUCH faster than most people are aware of.
I expect that fairly soon elective amputations will be fairly common. To get those fancy cybernetic ones you know?
what follows will be VERY interesting...
Right you are.
They are, however, still pressing for the development of smart cities "building a theoretical urban zone “from the internet up,” with some of the same tools and principles that have fueled success at many tech companies."
They will probably be free and provide UBI, I'm guessing. All it will cost is any perceived shred of privacy you have left.
Follow the money. Who has what to gain?