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> it comes from this belief that if you just require things, they'll magically happen We should be somewhat sympathetic that non-experts may not know the diffe
by dane-pgp 5y ago
> it comes from this belief that if you just require things, they'll magically happen
We should be somewhat sympathetic that non-experts may not know the difference between a possible and an impossible technical goal, and we have to accept that for a politician there isn't much electoral advantage to be gained from trying to explain the difference to their voters.
However, each time I hear an impossible goal proposed, I can't help imagining the politician saying "We managed to land people on the Moon and return them safely, so surely we can do the same with the Sun now."
- int_19h 5y agoThey should just do it at night, duh. (as it happens, that's the premise of a Soviet political joke from the Apollo era)
- dane-pgp 5y agoI admit I wasn't the first to come up with that "landing on the Sun" analogy, and it's a joke that turns up every now and then[0]. Like many things relating to space travel, I'm prepared to believe the Soviets came up with it first. [0] https://www.mic.com/articles/80001/did-north-korea-really-claim-to-land-a-man-on-the-sun-here-s-the-full-story https://www.mic.com/articles/80001/did-north-korea-really-cl...