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Numerous technological advancements have been made as a result of the space race, but asking for justification on spending money on scientific inquiry is just g
by least 3y ago
Numerous technological advancements have been made as a result of the space race, but asking for justification on spending money on scientific inquiry is just going to come to whether or not you support science generally.
- throwanem 3y agoI'd like to see some justification for considering science and space exploration as one and the same. It's hardly as if we've run out of things to learn from this planet, after all.
- jacquesm 3y agoPersonally I'd like to see some justification for discovering America, there was plenty to be learned in Spain and Portugal at the time.
- throwanem 3y agoGiven how Europeans have behaved themselves on this continent, that really doesn't qualify as a meaningful counterargument. If anything, it's more to my point than yours.
- scarface_74 3y agoWell the people that were already here and died from both disease brought by the Europeans and murder might not see that as progress
- least 3y agoThey don't have to be the same, but exploration is a necessary part of the scientific process, whether that be in the depths of the ocean, inside the earth, or in space. Curiosity has driven exploration, discovery, and subsequently science. It's fine that you're not as curious as some, but suggesting that we must only focus on things on Earth when we have literally billions of people on earth that all have individual interests and things they're curious about is just about limiting progress, not about preserving Earth.
- throwanem 3y agoThe Nuremberg Code also limits progress. Will you make the same complaint about it? If not, then we've established a mutually acceptable baseline for limits on human progress, and a subset of mutually acceptable reasons for imposing such limits. I suggest only that we need not stop there.
- least 3y agoThese aren't remotely comparable. How about just justify your rationale behind wanting to impose limits on space exploration on all of humanity?
- throwanem 3y agoI did that in my first comment. How on Earth do you support the claim that one deliberately self-imposed limit on human progress can't be compared with another?
- least 3y agoYou defined the limitation as "looking after the people on earth first," which has basically no meaning, so no, I would not say that you adequately defined those constraints in your first comment. > How on Earth do you support the claim that one deliberately self-imposed limit on human progress can't be compared with another? You're being obtuse. There's a much more clearly defined intersection of human ethics when it comes to performing science on human beings than there is with some sort of vague proposition that space exploration is a waste of resources that is harming humanity indirectly by not allocating those resources towards taking care of other human beings.
- eru 3y agoWe could have spent money directly on the technologies we are interested in. That would have likely been more efficient.