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> Of course "most watched event" is more complicated, but I'd still bet on the moon landing, soccer and the Olympic opening ceremonies making up the top, rather

by tivert 3y ago

> Of course "most watched event" is more complicated, but I'd still bet on the moon landing, soccer and the Olympic opening ceremonies making up the top, rather than war or terror attacks. IMHO, that makes my point much stronger. If sports got higher ratings than the Moon landing, it's a clear indication we're in a bubble that inflates the importance of and interest in space exploration.

burnished 3y ago
Might be making a mistake there, it sounds like you are dismissing sports as unimportant, instead it might be impressive that something so abstract and distant was able to rival something so elemental and popular.
- tivert 3y ago
  > Might be making a mistake there, it sounds like you are dismissing sports as unimportant, instead it might be impressive that something so abstract and distant was able to rival something so elemental and popular. My only point is I think geeks over-estimate the popularity of space exploration, incorrectly generalizing "it excites me/my type" to "it excites everyone/humanity." If regularly-held sporting events eclipse singular events in space exploration, it deflates high-flying rhetoric that expects the latter to be "the single most watched event in human history." I make no comment on the importance of sports. But I'd argue that professional sports are probably more abstract (ultimately counting according to some arbitrary rules) and (practically, in a human sense) about as distant as space exploration.
notfish 3y ago
Or maybe it has gotten easier to watch things than it was in 1969?
pcthrowaway 3y ago
The global population in 1969 was about 3.5 billion people, and I imagine global TV adoption was much lower at the time as well. Even if 60% of people alive at the time watched the moon landing, a sports event today would only need to be watched by ~30% of the global population to eclipse it. I agree that a televised Mars landing would be the most watched televised event in history.

by tivert 3y ago

burnished 3y ago

Might be making a mistake there, it sounds like you are dismissing sports as unimportant, instead it might be impressive that something so abstract and distant was able to rival something so elemental and popular.

tivert 3y ago
> Might be making a mistake there, it sounds like you are dismissing sports as unimportant, instead it might be impressive that something so abstract and distant was able to rival something so elemental and popular. My only point is I think geeks over-estimate the popularity of space exploration, incorrectly generalizing "it excites me/my type" to "it excites everyone/humanity." If regularly-held sporting events eclipse singular events in space exploration, it deflates high-flying rhetoric that expects the latter to be "the single most watched event in human history." I make no comment on the importance of sports. But I'd argue that professional sports are probably more abstract (ultimately counting according to some arbitrary rules) and (practically, in a human sense) about as distant as space exploration.

notfish 3y ago

Or maybe it has gotten easier to watch things than it was in 1969?

pcthrowaway 3y ago

The global population in 1969 was about 3.5 billion people, and I imagine global TV adoption was much lower at the time as well. Even if 60% of people alive at the time watched the moon landing, a sports event today would only need to be watched by ~30% of the global population to eclipse it. I agree that a televised Mars landing would be the most watched televised event in history.