If someone with direct expertise on the effects of coronal mass ejections and/or solar flares could comment, that would be good. It sounds like it could cause blackouts every so often, if not damage. Note use of Gallium Arsenide electronics to minimize radiation damage.
Comms question is discussed here and here. Needs more input from radio specialists.
Obsolescence discussed here, here, and here. Obsolete thinsats should be useful as ballast for future deployments and as radiation shields, as long as control can be maintained.
Bricking a single sat wouldn’t be too costly. Bricking the whole fleet would be. So patches should be applied in a relatively piecemeal fashion. External attacks are a problem that needs more discussion, I think. Encryption (probably in hardware) does add to the cost, but is probably worth it.
On reducing poverty: My mental model is that anything that boosts the economy and makes business transactions happen more easily in a generalized fashion (i.e. one that is not dramatically favorable to particular monopolizing agents) is going to reduce poverty. It is a matter of increased employment and decreased costs.
While computer distribution and mesh net access have (I think) high potential for helping people in extreme poverty to do more business and education, there’s something to be said for a super-powerful, routinely upgraded computer based in the sky where it can’t easily be stolen or broken by local thugs. Also, the relevant utility calculation isn’t only a matter of reducing extreme poverty. Unlike mesh networks and so forth this would directly benefit middle class people as well, e.g. millions could cancel their internet subscriptions, start hosting computing-intense personal projects for near-free, and stop upgrading their computers so frequently.
On topicality: I think the disconnect many are feeling between this topic and LessWrong is essentially a feature of the map, not the territory. Rationality is all about solving problems, including the problem of what problems to decide to work on. It is important to realize that when a problem seems too far-mode to consider and scrutinize rationally, that is essentially a feature of your skills and instincts, not the problem itself. (Perhaps I ought to write a top level post about that.)
If someone with direct expertise on the effects of coronal mass ejections and/or solar flares could comment, that would be good. It sounds like it could cause blackouts every so often, if not damage. Note use of Gallium Arsenide electronics to minimize radiation damage.
Comms question is discussed here and here. Needs more input from radio specialists.
Obsolescence discussed here, here, and here. Obsolete thinsats should be useful as ballast for future deployments and as radiation shields, as long as control can be maintained.
Bricking a single sat wouldn’t be too costly. Bricking the whole fleet would be. So patches should be applied in a relatively piecemeal fashion. External attacks are a problem that needs more discussion, I think. Encryption (probably in hardware) does add to the cost, but is probably worth it.
On reducing poverty: My mental model is that anything that boosts the economy and makes business transactions happen more easily in a generalized fashion (i.e. one that is not dramatically favorable to particular monopolizing agents) is going to reduce poverty. It is a matter of increased employment and decreased costs.
While computer distribution and mesh net access have (I think) high potential for helping people in extreme poverty to do more business and education, there’s something to be said for a super-powerful, routinely upgraded computer based in the sky where it can’t easily be stolen or broken by local thugs. Also, the relevant utility calculation isn’t only a matter of reducing extreme poverty. Unlike mesh networks and so forth this would directly benefit middle class people as well, e.g. millions could cancel their internet subscriptions, start hosting computing-intense personal projects for near-free, and stop upgrading their computers so frequently.
On topicality: I think the disconnect many are feeling between this topic and LessWrong is essentially a feature of the map, not the territory. Rationality is all about solving problems, including the problem of what problems to decide to work on. It is important to realize that when a problem seems too far-mode to consider and scrutinize rationally, that is essentially a feature of your skills and instincts, not the problem itself. (Perhaps I ought to write a top level post about that.)