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I'm surprised at the negativity on this on a startup accelerator's site where "a small chance of success" - Gimli style - means game on. At my org, we've had o

by sriku 8y ago

I'm surprised at the negativity on this on a startup accelerator's site where "a small chance of success" - Gimli style - means game on. At my org, we've had one of these round 3 candidates give a talk about it and the interview and training process they went through seemed like no joke. It seemed to me that if you were to start a company with the final selectees, it would be hard to fail.

Areading314 8y ago
I think there are a lot of people on here who think that "conquering space" is a giant distraction from the many very real problems that exist here on Earth that can actually be solved by self-sustaining businesses.
- Pristina 8y ago
  but muh space, muh high contrast colorful nebulae, muh railguns
- laumars 8y ago
  I disagree. I think that conquering space makes sense from the perspective of creating a redundant copy of the human race (I say “redundant” rather than “backup” because Mars is too close to Earth to protect it against any sizeable interstellar events). My issue with Mars One was that it didn’t seem very credible in achieving its goals and that worries me that now people have been burnt by Mars One, they will not take a more credible organisation seriously if/when one comes along.
- neatcoder 8y ago
  I think such thinking is very short-sighted. Space exploration is necessary. It satisfies human curiosity, a very innate need among humans, one of the reasons why our species has been very successful so far. That there are real problems that exist here on the Earth somehow does not preclude space exploration. Space exploration and solving problems on the Earth are not mutually exclusive activities. They can both be done in parallel and sometimes one helps the other and vice versa.
  - Retra 8y ago
    On the other hand, any argument which proposes that we should explore space because we are unable to solve problems on Earth is entirely foolhardy and fantastical.
Barrin92 8y ago
>I'm surprised at the negativity on this on a startup accelerator's site where "a small chance of success" - Gimli style - means game on. I think there are two different ways of interpreting 'a small chance of success'. The risk of a startup failing is generally because uncertainty is very high and competition tends to be fairly strong, not because the idea startups come up with are super outlandish or seem outright impossible. But trying to crowdfund you to Mars is a little bit like saying "I'm going to build an AGI in my garage in the next 10 years". And I think when it comes to actually bringing people into space, we need to talk about scientific expertise, health, safety and how much of this is a publicity stunt that, if it ever happened, threatens the health of people. We're far beyond a webapp here

by sriku 8y ago

Areading314 8y ago

I think there are a lot of people on here who think that "conquering space" is a giant distraction from the many very real problems that exist here on Earth that can actually be solved by self-sustaining businesses.

Pristina 8y ago
but muh space, muh high contrast colorful nebulae, muh railguns
laumars 8y ago
I disagree. I think that conquering space makes sense from the perspective of creating a redundant copy of the human race (I say “redundant” rather than “backup” because Mars is too close to Earth to protect it against any sizeable interstellar events). My issue with Mars One was that it didn’t seem very credible in achieving its goals and that worries me that now people have been burnt by Mars One, they will not take a more credible organisation seriously if/when one comes along.
neatcoder 8y ago
I think such thinking is very short-sighted. Space exploration is necessary. It satisfies human curiosity, a very innate need among humans, one of the reasons why our species has been very successful so far. That there are real problems that exist here on the Earth somehow does not preclude space exploration. Space exploration and solving problems on the Earth are not mutually exclusive activities. They can both be done in parallel and sometimes one helps the other and vice versa.
- Retra 8y ago
  On the other hand, any argument which proposes that we should explore space because we are unable to solve problems on Earth is entirely foolhardy and fantastical.

Barrin92 8y ago

>I'm surprised at the negativity on this on a startup accelerator's site where "a small chance of success" - Gimli style - means game on. I think there are two different ways of interpreting 'a small chance of success'. The risk of a startup failing is generally because uncertainty is very high and competition tends to be fairly strong, not because the idea startups come up with are super outlandish or seem outright impossible. But trying to crowdfund you to Mars is a little bit like saying "I'm going to build an AGI in my garage in the next 10 years". And I think when it comes to actually bringing people into space, we need to talk about scientific expertise, health, safety and how much of this is a publicity stunt that, if it ever happened, threatens the health of people. We're far beyond a webapp here