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I think anytime someone plays to the deeply held hopes and dreams of a given community, especially ones that are related to long-term survival, "destiny" and th
by M_Grey 10y ago
I think anytime someone plays to the deeply held hopes and dreams of a given community, especially ones that are related to long-term survival, "destiny" and the like... be very very careful and very very skeptical. That's not to say you should be depressive and cynical, but you should ask questions and seek motives.
We're really not close to being a "multiplanetary species", and the major bottlenecks have nothing to do with the rockets to get us out there. A lot of smart people are aware of just how much trouble our species is in over the next century or so, and there's an element of understandable misery and panic. That really is no excuse however for cheering and weeping with joy when the guy selling the rockets points to the stars and says, "Humanity's future!"
- nitrogen 10y agoThat really is no excuse however for cheering and weeping with joy when the guy selling the rockets points to the stars and says, "Humanity's future!" Why not? Just because he's selling something doesn't mean his actions aren't useful.
- M_Grey 10y agoI said a lot of other things in that post which answers that question, before the one sentence you decided to reply to.
- nitrogen 10y agoMy reply is to your whole comment. I am still not convinced that it is inappropriate to celebrate SpaceX, if for no other reason than to encourage others to join in the vision of a multiplanetary society.
- M_Grey 10y agoCelebrate SpaceX for what they're actually doing, which is impressive as hell, not for empty talk.
- nitrogen 10y agoI think attitudes are worth celebrating to an extent, as well as actions.
- M_Grey 10y agoAttitudes are cheap and easy, if you want to celebrate a positive attitude pick a religion.
- yincrash 10y agoWhat they are actually doing is making progress is fulfilling the plan to colonize Mars. Everything they've done since the founding of the company has been toward that goal. This presentation was just to fill the public in on more details of the near future of achieving that. I think celebrating their progress so far is also celebrating their attitude and ambition toward the future they are projecting. It's definitely not empty talk if the previous goals they've set in their plan have been successful. That's a good indicator that the goals they set for the future is something they really are working toward achieving.
- elihu 10y ago> We're really not close to being a "multiplanetary species", and the major bottlenecks have nothing to do with the rockets to get us out there. They're not? If getting stuff from Earth's surface to low earth orbit and beyond weren't prohibitively expensive, we'd be doing a lot more of it. Sure, there are many other technical (and some social and political) challenges inherent in sending people to Mars but if we don't solve the launch cost problem it'll be difficult to make rapid progress on the other problems that would suddenly become more pressing if launch costs weren't an issue.