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Watching 2001 again pains me endlessly for what could have been. What was just background technology in that movie (Skype and iPads) is the best we’ve managed f

• eecc 6y ago
  Well, there's an energy wall we still haven't figured out how to work around.
  • scottLobster 6y ago
    And have no real desire to figure out, if you look at the relatively paltry funding given to energy research compared to other endeavors.
• scottLobster 6y ago
  All comes down to economics. I grew up with the sunny optimistic notion of the human drive for exploration, projected onto everything from Paleolithic Tribes populating the world to Christopher Columbus to Oregon Trail Pioneers to Star Trek. The older I get and the more history I read, well the paleolithic tribes were probably chasing prey or trying to get away from other hostile tribes, no one was interested in Columbus's findings until he told them there was gold/other valuables in the new world. The western pioneers largely had so little economic opportunity on the east coast that going thousands of miles over hostile terrain just to perhaps start a successful farm/mine gold seemed like a good idea. Star Trek is predicated on a post-scarcity, participation-based society (where "doing your best" is tracked and rewarded) which is basically enlightened communism but with open-source algorithms replacing the corrupt humans for pricing/resource allocation. So sure, once we figure that little thing out maybe we can move up Maslow's hierarchy to the "human spirit of exploration". Until then most people are just trying to not go bankrupt, minimize their own misery and perhaps have something left for their kids.