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I would be really excited about a future where everyone had access to clean water. Going to space is fun and exciting. The future of space travel is going to b

I would be really excited about a future where everyone had access to clean water. Going to space is fun and exciting. The future of space travel is going to be interesting, but it essential that when we imagine the future that we do so while recognizing the glaring problems of today.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
bicubic 9y ago
The lack of access to clean water and most of the bad stuff happening around the world is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. Elon Musk's passion lies in engineering, not in politics. So while your sentiment is fine in a vacuum, I don't think it fits on this thread, and it's certainly not a sound criticism against advancing space colonization. In fact, there's a sizable sentiment that this planet is beyond saving due to political failures, and colonizing other planets is the only way for our species to survive.
- evanlivingston 9y ago
  I don't mean to antagonize Elon Musk himself. What I wanted to point out is that the future doesn't exist in a vacuum. While some people are jumping around on mars others will be unable to put food on their table. It saddens me to see that things that make people most excited about the future are the development of technologies that don't address issues of inequality. Why would our political failures not follow us to other planets that we colonize?
  - olau 9y ago
    I think it's a harsh view of human nature that doesn't allow for individuals to have individual motivations.
  - solveinequality 9y ago
    what technology will change inequality? genetic engineering to turn the entire human race into sex-free clones?
- feborges 9y ago
  /me is looking forward for a new planet without politics </sarcasm>
- feborges 9y ago
  Engineering is a political act!
Tepix 9y ago
Going to space doesn't take resources away from getting everyone access to clean water. These are not related activities.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Not only that - we have more than enough resources available to tackle this problem. The reasons it is not happening have nothing to do with it being underfunded, and thus axing space research will not help it either.
staticelf 9y ago
With increased technology comes more liberties for all. With your kind of thinking we would still live in caves because why work on anything unless we solve all our social issues first? Progress is not made by politicians, it is made by engineers. If you want clean water for all humans, you should be supportive of discovering new stuff. For example, for humans to survive in hostile environments on other planets we need to create new innovations and that creates a big incentive to figure out technological solutions to hard problems. Turning salt water into drinkable water is one, this one is actually already solved and being implemented across different countries and if we can improve that and make it cheaper we will have solved the problem of water already.
- llukas 9y ago
  > Progress is not made by politicians, it is made by engineers. It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. Standing on the shoulders of giants is not only about your predecessors that solved engineering problems so you can dive even deeper - it is also about society which found better ways over time for effective financing that allows science&engineering to happen. Also please read (for example) about Samsung and Nokia - they were forced to change industries by politicians in their respective countries.
  - staticelf 9y ago
    > It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. I disagree, a lot of nations became stable because of engineering solutions in the first place and also more scientifically literate. There is a ton of examples of this. The first telescope, as an example, thanks to Hans Lippershey and Galileo Galilei showed that the earth wasn't flat and removed some power from the church it also clearly made us see that the sun doesn't go around the earth so it showed that Copernicus was right all along. A big discovery that made people doubt the christian religion and change the political landscape forever. All big scientific discoveries changed the societies in a big way and there is no going back. Scientific discoveries and technological innovation is the only thing that push a society forward.
simonh 9y ago
Which use of resources is the biggest affront to you, given a preference to spend resources on access to clean water. Humans spending hundreds of billions of dollars on movies per year, or humans spending a coupe of tens of billions of dollars a year on making our species multi-planetary? How come this argument only gets dragged up when we’re talkign about space, but not when we’re talking about movies, holidays, computer games, etc. It just seems weirdly disproportionate.
kayoone 9y ago
With this kind of viewpoint you would never advance anything. It can't be black and white like that.
dsq 9y ago
The way to address the problems here on Earth are to develop a massive industrial civilization in space that will create the economic surplus that can be diverted home. Fusion power, for example, is more likely to be fully developed in space and only then deployed on Earth.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

bicubic 9y ago

The lack of access to clean water and most of the bad stuff happening around the world is not an engineering problem, it's a political problem. Elon Musk's passion lies in engineering, not in politics. So while your sentiment is fine in a vacuum, I don't think it fits on this thread, and it's certainly not a sound criticism against advancing space colonization. In fact, there's a sizable sentiment that this planet is beyond saving due to political failures, and colonizing other planets is the only way for our species to survive.

evanlivingston 9y ago
I don't mean to antagonize Elon Musk himself. What I wanted to point out is that the future doesn't exist in a vacuum. While some people are jumping around on mars others will be unable to put food on their table. It saddens me to see that things that make people most excited about the future are the development of technologies that don't address issues of inequality. Why would our political failures not follow us to other planets that we colonize?
- olau 9y ago
  I think it's a harsh view of human nature that doesn't allow for individuals to have individual motivations.
- solveinequality 9y ago
  what technology will change inequality? genetic engineering to turn the entire human race into sex-free clones?
feborges 9y ago
/me is looking forward for a new planet without politics </sarcasm>
feborges 9y ago
Engineering is a political act!

Tepix 9y ago

Going to space doesn't take resources away from getting everyone access to clean water. These are not related activities.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
Not only that - we have more than enough resources available to tackle this problem. The reasons it is not happening have nothing to do with it being underfunded, and thus axing space research will not help it either.

staticelf 9y ago

With increased technology comes more liberties for all. With your kind of thinking we would still live in caves because why work on anything unless we solve all our social issues first? Progress is not made by politicians, it is made by engineers. If you want clean water for all humans, you should be supportive of discovering new stuff. For example, for humans to survive in hostile environments on other planets we need to create new innovations and that creates a big incentive to figure out technological solutions to hard problems. Turning salt water into drinkable water is one, this one is actually already solved and being implemented across different countries and if we can improve that and make it cheaper we will have solved the problem of water already.

llukas 9y ago
> Progress is not made by politicians, it is made by engineers. It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. Standing on the shoulders of giants is not only about your predecessors that solved engineering problems so you can dive even deeper - it is also about society which found better ways over time for effective financing that allows science&engineering to happen. Also please read (for example) about Samsung and Nokia - they were forced to change industries by politicians in their respective countries.
- staticelf 9y ago
  > It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. I disagree, a lot of nations became stable because of engineering solutions in the first place and also more scientifically literate. There is a ton of examples of this. The first telescope, as an example, thanks to Hans Lippershey and Galileo Galilei showed that the earth wasn't flat and removed some power from the church it also clearly made us see that the sun doesn't go around the earth so it showed that Copernicus was right all along. A big discovery that made people doubt the christian religion and change the political landscape forever. All big scientific discoveries changed the societies in a big way and there is no going back. Scientific discoveries and technological innovation is the only thing that push a society forward.

simonh 9y ago

Which use of resources is the biggest affront to you, given a preference to spend resources on access to clean water. Humans spending hundreds of billions of dollars on movies per year, or humans spending a coupe of tens of billions of dollars a year on making our species multi-planetary? How come this argument only gets dragged up when we’re talkign about space, but not when we’re talking about movies, holidays, computer games, etc. It just seems weirdly disproportionate.

kayoone 9y ago

With this kind of viewpoint you would never advance anything. It can't be black and white like that.

dsq 9y ago

The way to address the problems here on Earth are to develop a massive industrial civilization in space that will create the economic surplus that can be diverted home. Fusion power, for example, is more likely to be fully developed in space and only then deployed on Earth.