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Space Flight? 100 years ago people didn't have electricity, indoor lighting, cars, appliances, dishwashers, highways, roads, airplanes, the internet, radio, fi

Space Flight? 100 years ago people didn't have electricity, indoor lighting, cars, appliances, dishwashers, highways, roads, airplanes, the internet, radio, film, TV, internet, mobile, GPS, taxes were 5% and the gov. provided almost no services i.e. no fire services, hardly any police, barely healthcare anywhere, maybe 3% went to University (strictly elite) and maybe 40% finished high school, running clean water (!), plumbing, voting for non land-owning men and all women, there was no contraception, abortions were dangerous and unheard of, infant mortality was 10% under the age of 1, there were no vaccines, no penicillin (~80% of operations were amputations! you could die from any wound that became infected), no insulin. And that's just getting started. 'Space Flight' is a cherry. The 'second phase' of the industrial revolution of the 20th century is a total 'explosion' of things happening unlike any time in history. Sadly I think we are becoming postmodern and disconnected, cultural foundations are fraying (we will treat culture like nature i.e. 'we like it but really an afterthought'). I think we will be 'materially prosperous' in the future, but I have little hope that we will necessarily be 'great'. We'll see.

awiesenhofer 4y ago
Nitpick: 100 years ago was 1922 - when a lot of this stuff already existed and some of it was even quite common (even if only just). Maybe its time to find a new colloquial phrase for "before modern society".
- jollybean 4y ago
  None if it was common 100 years ago even 'just'. Maybe indoor plumbing - but that was only 'kind of common' in the cities, not in rural areas, and cities weren't even quite half the population, tipping point for even that wasn't for a few more decades. Radios were just starting, they were not common. Space flight is not the significant 'thing' of the 20th century. It's just an experiment. We are not going to colonize Mars or travel the Solar System in any meaningful way for a long time. Life on Mars would be brutal and inhumane - locked in a dormitory forever? We will put a few people there, but that's it probably for many decades. We could have feasibly done this on the Moon already - we haven't because it's just too expensive for not much benefit. Maybe mining some asteroids. Otherwise, nothing hugely meaningful is going to happen in space, it's just too empty, too difficult and the benefits are marginal. Meanwhile on earth, the pace of 'change' is nothing like we've seen it before.

awiesenhofer 4y ago

Nitpick: 100 years ago was 1922 - when a lot of this stuff already existed and some of it was even quite common (even if only just). Maybe its time to find a new colloquial phrase for "before modern society".

jollybean 4y ago
None if it was common 100 years ago even 'just'. Maybe indoor plumbing - but that was only 'kind of common' in the cities, not in rural areas, and cities weren't even quite half the population, tipping point for even that wasn't for a few more decades. Radios were just starting, they were not common. Space flight is not the significant 'thing' of the 20th century. It's just an experiment. We are not going to colonize Mars or travel the Solar System in any meaningful way for a long time. Life on Mars would be brutal and inhumane - locked in a dormitory forever? We will put a few people there, but that's it probably for many decades. We could have feasibly done this on the Moon already - we haven't because it's just too expensive for not much benefit. Maybe mining some asteroids. Otherwise, nothing hugely meaningful is going to happen in space, it's just too empty, too difficult and the benefits are marginal. Meanwhile on earth, the pace of 'change' is nothing like we've seen it before.