21 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Nobody in This Country Got Rich on His Own
I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No!There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.You built a factory out there—good for you! But I want to be clear.You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for.You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come an...The wealthy became wealthy with the help of civilization.
30 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
Museums for Rebooting Civilization
"You don't see the point of a museum, Horst. It's for the next rise in the Cycles. Savages come to put together another civilization. The faster they can do it, the longer it'll be before another collapse because they'll be expanding their capabilities faster than the population. See? So the savages get their choice of a number of previous civilizations, and -the weapons to put a new one into action. You noticed the lock?"
"I did," said Potter. "You need some astronomy to solve it. I presume...An alien species that suffers regular collapses of civilization due to overpopulation keeps their museums out in the middle of nowhere and under bomb-proof domes to protect their contents so future savages may rediscover them and rebuild from their predecessors.