8 ms·
Why don't we focus on the shit here first? I'm sorry, but I just get frustrate with all these wondrous predictions that always seem to be about 30-50 years in
by ggwicz 15y ago
Why don't we focus on the shit here first?
I'm sorry, but I just get frustrate with all these wondrous predictions that always seem to be about 30-50 years in the future. Short enough away to be enticing, but long enough away where no one making these predictions will really he held accountable for their ridiculousness.
It just seems that every single generation a) has some "new threat" for "how the world will end" and b) has some technological vision that ends up being way overestimated.
- pjscott 15y agoWe can do both. Hell, even Elon Musk can do both; he also runs Tesla Motors, which makes electric cars on Earth. Also, I notice that people are much more likely to condemn space development as frivolous than they are to criticize, say, football or whittling. Does that seem like a double standard to you, too?
- philwelch 15y agoFootball and whittling are sustainably self-funding.
- ericd 15y agoFootball isn't a productive enterprise, regardless of how much money it can extract from the wider economy. Going to mars will most likely result in a large array of new tech which will find unrelated uses on Earth. Think of it like a way to buy a big burst of creativity.
- philwelch 15y agoOK, I'll bite. Define "productive enterprise".
- ericd 15y agoYou're not left with anything new at the end of a football game.
- philwelch 15y agoYou have recordings and accounts of the game that can be published or resold, and potentially fond memories of an enjoyable experience. The same criticism could be made of live theatre or concerts. Is the presence of physical artfacts after the fact your criteria for a "productive enterprise"? How do you reconcile this value judgment with the fact that experiences, rather than possessions, tend to be a bigger factor in human happiness? It's very hard to justify that something is "frivolous" or "non-productive" when it contributes materially to the happiness of a lot of people. People can deeply enjoy football, it can strengthen family and community bonds or just make for a fun evening. We don't live in a bleak dystopian society where we do nothing all day but provide for each other's physical needs. Football is no more frivolous or non-productive than easily most of the economy.
- ericd 15y agoYeah, I get all that, and I'm a fan of movies, theatre, and even the occasional football game. But I think that entertainment in general is less worthy than anything that moves knowledge and understanding forward. To your original comment, it's a bad idea to try to derive something's true worth from its profitability, especially in the short term.
- philwelch 15y agoI wasn't trying to derive anything's "true worth"--I was just saying that football is self-sustaining. And actually, movies and professional sports have advanced our understanding and technology a great deal, be it by advancing camera and computer imaging technologies or by advancing our medical knowledge by giving us more experience dealing with certain types of injuries. The competitive nature of professional sports also gives us insights into the most effective ways to train, condition, and give nutrition to the human body.
- gammarator 15y agoSo is SpaceX. Their rockets are changing the economics of space launch already--they are several factors cheaper per pound to orbit than their competitors.