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This whole “race to the moon, part II” is almost criminally stupid. Land on the moon when we can accomplish something there, not just to prove we haven’t lost o
by anigbrowl 1y ago
This whole “race to the moon, part II” is almost criminally stupid. Land on the moon when we can accomplish something there, not just to prove we haven’t lost our mojo since Apollo.
Not as criminally stupid as resting on our laurels and frittering away all the technical knowledge which we are now relearning the hard way. 'I can't think of things to do on the moon, therefore it's a waste of time' is an asinine argument.
Edited to add that I have long thought this dismissive smug attitude about how we already ticked that box and there's no need to tick it again directly contributes to the rise is nonsensical conspiracy theories like the the moon landing (or indeed space) being fake. And that acceptance of social and scientific ignorance goes a long way to explaining why we're currently governed by malicious fools.
- dash2 1y agoGoing to the moon isn't like weightlifting! If you need to preserve the technical knowledge, write it down. (Or record it in other ways if you think writing is limited.)
- anigbrowl 1y agoIf it was that simple institutional amnesia wouldn't be a thing, nor bitrot. Think of all the articles pointing out how the US has lost much of its manufacturing edge because we gave up building precision machinery and generational skills atrophied in areas from metallurgy to mechanical engineering. We're now inflicting the same future on ourselves by trashing our public health research infrastructure.