3 ms·

Going back to gp's question, though... Can you openly and honestly criticize the current situation? Not defend, not provide explanations for, but openly addre

• PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  I think there's huge room for criticism. But my starting point would not "it should be 100x safer, 1/10th the price, 1/2 the time". There have been some excellent links here on HN over the last year or two (at least) about difficulties in the USA in particular with civil engineering projects. I would defer to their much-more informed authors (and the often great comment threads here) regarding these matters. Clearly, things are "not right" with the time and cost of those projects in the USA relative to elsewhere in the world. If we were discussing "world best" rather than US-specific, then I'm not so sure if there's the same need for criticism.
  • whiddershins 5y ago
    If you see the multiple orders of magnitude reduction in cost to launch satellites we've seen recently, as a result of reusing landable rocket stages, how can you been so bearish on physical engineering improvements? Even computing advancements are technically a physical engineering triumph, taking the form of increased precision in chip creation.
    • PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      we haven't been putting things in space for very long. we've been building bridges, roads, buildings and more for thousands of years. from time to time, there will be "breakthrough" developments that transform the processes involved in these activities, but at this point they will be rare, certainly compared to novel human activity like near-atomic circuit fabrication.