site banner
PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3762 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 24, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I hate this term, but "weather engineering" sounds positively demonic. Yeah lets just go ahead and fuck with a chaotic/complex system that we could only model at a large scale recently. Animal and plant life be damned.

We already heavily engineer the weather, maybe we should try to do it scientifically instead of by chance based on what we emit. We already cut down on smog, acid rain and ozone damage, not to mention putting out forest fires. By paying attention and applying what we know we can improve the weather instead of making it worse.

There hasn't been whatever "state of nature" you're imagining for a long long time.

I think you don't fathom the amount of "engineering" it would take to double or triple sunshine hours in the British Isles...

Also smog, acid rain and ozone are the opposite of good examples.

Really? They are ways in which we changed what we are doing to improve the environment. We certainly aren't consuming less or using less energy, but we are doing it in a way that is better for us. We just cut back high sulfur bunker fuel and that is causing even faster global warming, so maybe we should replace that with high altitude sulf distribution to keep the climate stable, or even cool it a bit. Humans have already deeply changed every major system in the world. Everything here is basically here by our decree, this will only be more and more the case as our mastery and understanding increases, we need to continue to decide what we value and what we will preserve.

I also wasn't referring to the original request for more sun, just your comment that climate engineering sounded evil. I think it sounds like what we already do, except done right.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats