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Humans are capable of incredible achievements. But it is unlikely we will achieve interstellar travel any time soon. We are too busy fighting wars (relicts of t
by jwr 10y ago
Humans are capable of incredible achievements. But it is unlikely we will achieve interstellar travel any time soon. We are too busy fighting wars (relicts of the stone age, really), improving our advertising technology, and just generally slacking around and looking good in the process.
Thinking is hard. It's easier not to think too much.
- carleverett 10y agoHumans were busy fighting wars, improving its advertising technology, and just generally slacking around when the internet was being born as well. It only takes a very tiny portion of this world's 7 billion people to be smart and motivated enough to create a breakthrough for the entire planet. That said, interstellar travel is an order of magnitude more difficult, so I agree it won't be happening very soon.
- the_duke 10y agoI'm surprised that the internet so often comes up in the context of humanities great technical achievements. Don't get me wrong, a seamlessly interconnected network of computers has changed society and our lives tremendously. Technically speaking, it was not that remarkable of an achievement though. We already had some forms of remote communication for quite a while (telegraph, telephone, radio). With the rise of computers, connecting them was bound to be the next step, and not that much of a challenge as far as hardware and technology goes. The actual (technical) achievement was the computer.
- onewaystreet 10y agoPretty much all of the early rocket and space development was the result of WWII and the Cold War.
- PeterisP 10y agoAnd pretty much all space development stagnated as soon as the interests of space exploration diverged from the applications useful for military. When we/they wanted to put the first satellites in orbit, that shit was serious and got done with extreme speed, due to obvious implications of nuclear-tipped ICBMs. After that we got excessive investments in spy satellites and communications technologies, which resulted in civilian applications such as GPS and satellite TV, but practical interest (and founding) for anything beyond geostationary orbit pretty much stopped after the initial dick-measuring propaganda competition.
- hota_mazi 10y agoIt's true we are unlikely to achieve interstellar travel any time soon but this has nothing to do with the fact that there are wars and everything to do with the laws of nature. If anything, wars tend to accelerate technological progress.
- autokad 10y agowar spending rarely steps in the way of space spending. liberals hate the space program the most. they would much rather spend the money on healtcare and education. war as it turns out, has a lot of interest in space spending.
- chillwaves 10y agoHealthcare and education seem like great ways to increase the innovation we need for space travel.
- autokad 10y agoi dont think so. its not research. healthcare is perhaps the worst investment possible in the sense that we are just throwing the largest chunk of our budget towards old people who are going to die anyways. 2 trillion of the stuff and growing faster than our income, meanwhile we spend about 12 bil on NASA in total. education? have no idea where that spending is going to