Roads to Nodes

This document is an annotated index to an assortment of essays, and possibly other documents that I have authored or collected, and stored for public access on the internet. The collection is not consistently haphazard; many of the items are connected by webs of links and cross-references. There is no unique theme or sequence; some works are hardly more than persiflage, some are more or less technical, some philosophical, and some urge readers to undertake courses of action without which Homo is doomed. (Yes, really!)

Some of the essays explain what is absolutely necessary for our continued existence, and how it can be achieved. Those range from projects by which humanity may prevent or profit from imminent developments, to discussions of what it would imply if we did not soon wipe each other out.

Some items, and some parables, are unapologetic F&SF, or what educated people recognise as speculative fiction, and some material is just fun. But for anyone who recognises the fact, my only apology is that I have not made it more fun.

It is inevitable that many of my views, at the time of writing this map of the documents, are wrongly conceived in various ways, and there will be adjustments and occasional corrections, but at least I am sure that if I do nothing about it, the outcome will be worse than if I do my best.

With such things in mind, I strive to follow Jan de Hartog adjuration:

Do not commit the error, common among the young, of assuming
that if you cannot save the whole of mankind you have failed.
Jan de Hartog

Nodes & Topics Indexed for Special Attention

Items commonly reference each other in various ways, though some most naturally are self-contained topics — for now anyway. This list of links and synopses should be of some help in guessing which, if any, might be of interest to anyone exploring the index.
Bold text marks links to click on for the relevant articles.

• Aircraft That Refuse to Crash   There is a long-standing delusion that the only route to perfect air traffic safety is to make sure that they are too secure to fail or to succumb to sabotage or hijacking.
  
  

• And a hank of hair. This is a science fictional whimsy, though it is possible to derive a few cautionary thoughts from it, along the lines of "be careful what you strive for — you might succeed in more than you wished for..." 
  
  

• And Turn About: This is Science Fiction self-indulgence, but it is a parable in some senses. 

• At Home in Mercury Describes approaches to exploring and exploiting one of our apparently most threatening and useless planets. It would be a long-term prospect and accordingly references other essays such as Immortal Imperative
  
  

• Boolean Semiotics. Most people who work with Boolean devices hardly go further than the delusion that "Boolean" means "binary". This essay arose from impatience with such shallow impressions.

• Constructive Points of Existence Deals with a number of very real and constructive points, both formal and material, regarding foundational ideas. For more, see: Hilbert's Sixth Problem; Some Thoughts Arising
  
  

• Deadly Logic A problem for fun: a logic challenge for humans and for AI? 
  Who didn’t kill whom, and who didn’t commit suicide? 
  Try to think up a better problem, and let us know!

• Energy Storage & Renewable Energy Sources In energy banking, finding the energy is just part of the challenge; deposit and withdrawal are no easier, Compare this one with Heavy Duty Energy Banking and Heavier Duty Banking -- Appendix & Supplement

•  Evil's Existence A realist’s challenge to naïve dogma

• For He-3, Go to the Source This potentially precious gas is so rare that people speak of mining it from the moon, but there are richer, less vandalistic sources. 
  
  

• Fresh Water shortage is one of our most urgently growing ecological problems; and yet civilised water exploitation is possible, and at a net energy profit.
  
  

• Future Survival Project: This outlines an example of the existential, resource-based projects that our descendants must undertake for humanity to survive.For more detail, consult Immortal Imperative 
  
  

• Genotype Fair  Deals with a topic that has become taboo; we shall have to face it sooner or later, but rationally and acceptably for a change. See also: Win–Win Policies for GMOs and also  Immortal Imperative
  
  Geothermal energy is useful, but to benefit from its potential as an effectively permanent power source and storage medium, demands that we go deep enough to exploit the natural convection of hot rock.  We need to develop the technology accordingly, and far more positively than we do today.

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• Hilbert's Sixth Problem; Some Thoughts Arising. Criticism of a proposal drafted by a Great, written by a non-physicist who would never have done so without an invitation. Can physics be axiomatized? A large subject. Reflections on the intersection of probability and physical law Draws distinctions between formal and applied disciplines. See also: Constructive Points of Existence

• If you can read this, perhaps you should. 
  Reading in particular, is much like learning a second language, and children can pick it up most easily at their most receptive age.

   

• Immortal Imperative Humanity must construct and discover their own future — or die out
  
  

• Intelligence in Societies; learning from Insects Requires serious engagement with the concept of distributed and collective intelligence, focusing on lessons from social insects.

• Kuiper Belt Navigation and Mining We may be looking forward to the greatest accessible mineral resources, with the least ecological penalties in our solar system. 
  See also: 
  Immortal Imperative, At Home in Mercury, and For He-3, Go to the Source

• Laboratory dodges and wheezes Anyone who discovers nothing from years of working for years in laboratories had better check his pulse; he might be dead. Here are a few that I picked up.
  
  

• Millisecond Soliloquies Pure science fiction, detailing brief, speculative narratives that echo thematically in high-stake philosophical work on our future .Immortal Imperative
  
  

• Panspermia: Assessment and critique. Biological and cosmological topics that advocates of panspermia commonly approach inappropriately: a more rigorous perspective. For more perspective, see Immortal Imperative

• Program design as a tool in education need not be a topic limited to computer education in particular; if you don't understand how to do something at all, you don't understand how to do it by computer; if you do understand how to do it by computer, you might understand something about doing it in at least some other ways. 

•  Religion and Science as opposites  The idea that science is a form of religion or religion a form of science, is a failure to understand either of them
  
  

• Selective Climate Engineering  Political obstructionism and panic will not save us. Intelligent, selective engineering can implement safe, economical measures, such as the positive interventions proposed here If we do nothing we will go down with everything else.
  
  

• The ESS, the SSS, and the brick wall.  We are destroying ourselves and our world, like countless communities before us, only more rapidly and more thoroughly. Unless we can achieve a maintainable Evolutionarily Stable Strategy, and a Socially Stable Strategy, then we surely will wipe ourselves out permanently against that brick wall. See also the Immortal Imperative .
  
  

• The Hidden Biology of Refuse Arguably the second most important topic in our biology; a critical process dangerously evaded in polite conversation.
  
  

• Win–Win Policies for GMOs This field is already a reality of threats and promises. To guide policy, we need something better than invective; we need clarity and comprehension of the risks and benefits. See also: Genotype Fair