6 ms·

It's pretty depressing that on a corner of the internet that's supposed to be a gathering of tech/geeks/nerds/stem people, discussing topics that "good hackers

It's pretty depressing that on a corner of the internet that's supposed to be a gathering of tech/geeks/nerds/stem people, discussing topics that "good hackers would find interesting", it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering.

wileydragonfly 6mo ago
Whiteys on the moon
- NamlchakKhandro 6mo ago
  [flagged]
guax 6mo ago
I would be more depressed if, looking at the current political landscape this corner decided to be entirely alienated or oblivious to the environment in which this massive achievement is made.
- whimsicalism 6mo ago
  do you think the current environment is more or less just than it was during the 1969 moon landing?
  - downrightmike 6mo ago
    Nixon wasn't in office yet, but he did have his campaign manager got to Vietnam and promise the VietCong a better deal if they walked away from negotiations, which lead to FIVE more years of war and countless lives lost for nothing other than a point to talk about on his soap box
    - kurthr 6mo ago
      The difference seems to be that Nixon may have been crooked, but he was largely competent. He operated on experience, expertise, and causal reality. Our current political situation is largely free of facts, knowledge, or causality. Much of the corruption that happens today is in plain sight and basically ignored. The goal is governance through depoliticization and post-truth infotainment. Note that Nixon was actually impeached by his own party and would have been removed for what would now be a single day of news cycle, only on a few networks/papers, and completely ignored by a major political party.
      - wileydragonfly 6mo ago
        [flagged]
        paulryanrogers 6mo ago
        Nixon was on track to be impeached, convicted, and thrown in jail. The people were demanding it. His resignation was basically a "you can't fire me, I quit!" moment. Ford's pardon of Nixon was and remains controversial.
        wileydragonfly 6mo ago
        So.. he wasn’t impeached. Thanks for interrupting.
  - skeeter2020 6mo ago
    I think the tech world is fundamentally difference, though I'm not old enough to experience it in '69. I don't believe we had tech moguls who built enormous wealth and realized they could by the influence they couldn't muster with social influence, and that has made the world net-worse.
    - Gagarin1917 6mo ago
      What’s the point of focusing on one aspect of the world? Taken as a whole, the 60’s were far more intense and violent. The Vietnam War. The draft. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Racial inequality and protests. Several major assassinations. Nixon in the White House. And that’s just the US. The world is net-better even if certain areas still need improvement. But there’s really no point to hyperfocusing on just the things that are worse.
    - bostik 6mo ago
      > I don't believe we had tech moguls who built enormous wealth and realized they could by the influence Didn't this just describe the robber barons of the Gilded Age? Moguls and oligarchs of the day, yes. Amassed their fortunes on the emerging frontier technology of the time, I'd say so. Wielded enormous power over political discourse and essentially owned the law makers of the day. Rhymes, for sure. It doesn't really matter whether you live in a democracy if the the very issues that are even allowed to be voted on are decided by an elite, wealthy and politically connected group.
    - whimsicalism 6mo ago
      I find it odd how reluctant you are to say it is more just today. I think it is no comparison.
  - guax 6mo ago
    I don't think is a fair question because the expectations are wildly different. The 80s and 90s transition gave us expectations of policy, peace and progress that were very different than the 60s. 69 had two things going on for it, the war was not news and on its first signs of being scalled back, Nixon had announced a retraction of force for September (but ended up extending the whole thing to 75) and this would be the first moon landing, there was nothing like it. From 1969 to today, we're waaaaay better. But from 6 months ago there is clearly an elephant in the room taking a lot of attention.
telman17 6mo ago
These people existed in the Apollo era just not on a website. We weren't exactly living in a utopia then either and you'd have difficulty convincing some folks to be excited about space exploration then too. Some people feel their outlook on the world takes precedence. And they'll shit in other people's celebrations to get their point across. Best to downvote or ignore them and embrace what nuance you can find.
- modeless 6mo ago
  My problem isn't that these people exist in the world. My problem is they're increasingly drowning out other voices in a community I'm part of. I would prefer significantly more active moderation against politics and general non-technical negativity on this site.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
- aworks 6mo ago
  I was 10 in 1969. Landing on the moon was a communal and shared event for a large percentage of the population, via one of the three television networks. As was the war in Vietnam. Many decades later, our institutions are in need of rebuild, for the common good. Maybe this event is a "small step" in that direction.
  - mrguyorama 6mo ago
    The Apollo program only barely reached 50% approval during the Apollo 11 landing. They canceled landings because people stopped caring within a couple moon landings. The popularity of Apollo is fictional. Artemis has dramatically better popularity than Apollo.
    - aworks 6mo ago
      I"m not saying it had high approval. I'm saying it had high community awareness, unlike the current mission. I was in a bookstore where they were playing the radio over their speakers as Apollo 13 reported problems. That seems different to our current fragmented, de-institutionalized world, FWIW. Maybe there are tiktok memes that I'm not aware of.
huflungdung 6mo ago
[dead]
Eji1700 6mo ago
I have family who worked for NASA until the 70s. They’re one of the biggest sources of criticism of this project. There are negative things to observe about this project. They should not be ignored
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 6mo ago
  I'd love to read your family member(s) criticisms; anywhere to do so? The perspective of a former NASA employee could be fascinating. If you don't mind me asking, what did they do for NASA?
  - Eji1700 6mo ago
    > I'd love to read your family member(s) criticisms; anywhere to do so? The perspective of a former NASA employee could be fascinating. Personal emails? These aren't the kind of people to blog. If you want a brief summary they, like many, feel this whole thing is a farce due to how the project has be designed and spec'd. I think smarter every day did a wonderful youtube video comparing what kind of documentation and planning they had for the past launches, and how it sure as shit doesn't look like they're anywhere near that right now (he's much nicer about it). NASA is doing their best, but the simple truth is the actual "landing" plan feels like it vomited out by a bunch a suits who don't understand reality and wanted headlines. A decent anecdote from the discussion that summarizes feelings: One of them got to spend a week in Cape Kennedy due to winning an Essay contest and met Frank Borman. To quote him > The topic of the essay was, What is man's future in space? > I believe that, had I written, 55 years from now we will beat the Chinese to the Moon, I would not have won.
- Gagarin1917 6mo ago
  I don’t think the criticisms on HN are related to Artemis’ imperfect concept and technical design. They’re almost exclusively related to political reasons. “There are problems in the world, therefore I can’t enjoy this” is flawed reasoning and isn’t even something that they apply to any other interest. It’s just special pleading.
  - 6mo ago
throwaway132448 6mo ago
It’s unfortunate, but if you’re blaming the people in the thread for this, I think you’re directing your energy in the wrong direction. Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction instead. If you want people to appreciate the bigger picture, you can’t keep forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook. The HN that you’re presumably nostalgic for existed in a time when there was a lot more fat on the bone, and every efficiency hadn’t been extracted for nebulous benefit to the average person.
- YZF 6mo ago
  Is there really less "fat on the bone" though? What metric are you tracking for that and what are the historical norms? "forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook" -> social media? Rather than assigning blame I think it's fair to ask the people here to behave. Maybe it's not their fault they spend their day doom scrolling and have the attention span of a cat but they do have agency to change that. [EDIT: This is an attempt at humor] Isn't "Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division" asking for politics? The way we get at "those people" (and let's not even argue about who they are) is to regulate ourselves (or for the moderators to do that) and have a more substantive and positive discussion regardless of our perceptions.
  - throwaway132448 6mo ago
    > Is there really less "fat on the bone" though? What metric are you tracking for that and what are the historical norms? It’s just my experience over the last 15 years. If it doesn’t align with yours, that’s nice to know. > "forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook" -> social media? Sure, but it could be lots of other things like 24hr news or the emergence of the gig economy. > Isn't "Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division" asking for politics? No it’s not, it’s asking for agency, personal accountability and self-awareness, as you yourself allude to. If that means politics for you, that’s up to you. I don’t imply to “get at” anyone, but to do best by ourselves instead of doing best by those who benefit from dividing or distracting us.
supliminal 6mo ago
It is possible but you have to cultivate it. There is no mechanism here that automates it, so it’s up to each author’s sentiment to shape the outcome as they see fit. Submit threads that are apolitical and guide conversations to be positive.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
rishabhaiover 6mo ago
If one can't find their true purpose in life, they resort to seek purity in morals and virtue (in themselves and people around them).
awesome_dude 6mo ago
Not all hackers!
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
happytoexplain 6mo ago
Yes, but it's depressing because of the environmental factors causing the problem, not the people experiencing the problem.
yodsanklai 6mo ago
> it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering I quickly browsed the top 10 comments, didn't see much negativity. And maybe this is because this is a forum of "tech/geeks/nerds/stem people" that you'd expect some educated and critical comments.
- NamlchakKhandro 6mo ago
  Clearly not looking hard enough
Fricken 6mo ago
There was a man on the moon in 1969. 65 years of so-called technological progress and the US is worse than it was before, so we can rule out an interest in technological progress as a reason for any of this. Getting all teary eyed about a second rate mission from a has-been space agency is kind of cringe-inducing, HN. Maybe we should revive Pamela Anderson's career, or bring Mike Tyson out of retirement to fight a youtube influencer in an effort to re-live past glory. Oh, yeah, that's right. America already did that. America did that and it was sad.
skeeter2020 6mo ago
There's just so little science here though, to expect the audience on HN to get excited about redoing something 65 years later for the purpose of political grand-standing and nationalism while the world literally burns and so many are hurting... I'd be more upset if a bunch of insulated tech nerds obliviously continued to along their easy trajectories without a though of everyone else. We may not be the 1% but we're definitely the 5%
- thesmtsolver2 6mo ago
  If our ancestors had listened to arguments like this, we might all be still in a small zone in Africa.
  - paulryanrogers 6mo ago
    Opportunistically venturing out of Africa is one thing. Sending a couple people around a distant and desolate rock, while the homeworld burns due to unforced errors, is another.
    - nomel 6mo ago
      Alternatively, if we don't become a multi-planetary species, we will be exterminated by a meteor. There's enough excess to do a bit of species saving multi-tasking. For an alternate perspective, the development for this (which includes future launches) was only 80% the cost of ~500 miles of railway in California! [1] [1] https://www.kabc.com/2026/04/06/high-speed-rail-cost-now-at-126b/ https://www.kabc.com/2026/04/06/high-speed-rail-cost-now-at-...
      - paulryanrogers 6mo ago
        It's unlikely we'll be exterminated by a meteor for many millions of years. Life as we know it is already facing existential risks here and now. Doubtful we'll ever establish permanent residency anywhere else when we cannot sustain ourselves on the rock we evolved on.
sega_sai 6mo ago
I think it would have been much better, if the nation that launched that mission did not in the same time start a war... I personally simply cannot separate these two things.
- Gagarin1917 6mo ago
  Have you always felt the same way about Apollo and the Vietnam War? Or are you considering this for the first time?
  - sega_sai 6mo ago
    I was not around at that time, so I have not considered it. But it is a fair point.
    - Gagarin1917 6mo ago
      Even with darkness in the world, it’s still healthy and moral to appreciate the good that happens. I’d say it’s actually important to do so in life in general. Emotional maturity is balancing both the good and bad in life and not letting either completely dominate your reality.
  - whackernews 6mo ago
    I’m finding this a lot. I always found the scrutiny of Trump to be quite over the top and never really found him to be any more corrupt or awful than any other politician, just that he was openly anti establishment. Which is what I guessed was the reason for the hyper scrutiny. I ask some people about Iraq and Afghanistan and they never really seem to know as much or have as much detail as they do with how illegal this Iran war is. I find that odd and have maybe chalked it up to this over-scrutiny again. To be clear I actually think this is good. I feel like we might finally be looking at politicians with the amount of scrutiny we need to, but am not optimistic it will continue when the next pro-establishment character is installed. People also seem to be on board with the Ukraine war, which I also understand but find strange that fighting wars on foreign soil are sometimes “good” and sometimes “bad”? For me I have a simple rule; if they’re not at the birder of my own country I’m not interested. You can argue details and complexities but the way I see it is that wars are a fucking mess and there are lots of complexities that can be used to sell you either way. If you’re not there, you don’t know. I always wonder if France and the UK hadn’t declared war on Germany, would WWII ever happened? It’s an interesting one and more of a thought experiment but the implications are interesting and raises some very touchy moral questions. It’s basically a massive trolley problem question with lots of unknowns.
fortran77 6mo ago
[flagged]
- none2585 6mo ago
  There's just a lot of us who don't agree with you! Wild I know
- kikokikokiko 6mo ago
  HN is heavily populated by and biased towards left left leaning west coast IT adjacent people. But it still makes me wonder for how long can the US keep it's dominance on the world stage with so many people that think this way in positions of power on the arguably most important econonomic/social area from now on.
- dzjkb 6mo ago
  you can't be serious, have an honest look at the history of US involvment around the world in the last ~80 years and tell me how can you be pro-West and pro-capitalist... hell, even just the situation we're in right now perfectly illustrates what I mean - a rapist president trying to save face and causing the death and suffering of thousands of innocent people - and you're wrong if you think capitalist forces didn't lead us to this point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
  - nntwozz 6mo ago
    “It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” ― Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
tdb7893 6mo ago
The top comments complaining about other comments complaining about stuff really shows how negative internet discourse is hard to avoid. I don't think these comments are bad (meta-discussion is a good thing in general) but they also seems to embody that same negativity. This comment also isn't positive and the cycle continues. I agree that people are often too negative and this is a good example of how that negativity is contagious.
kube-system 6mo ago
Hacker culture has deep political and philosophical roots, it's intrinsic to the community.
runarberg 6mo ago
There simply isn’t denying the political nature of this mission. Majority of statements from NASA about it specify America’s need for space dominance, thank the Trump administration, and assert American exceptionalism in some other way. The discussion on HN simply reflects the rhetoric which comes from NASA.
not_kurt_godel 6mo ago
How do you evaluate your own comment by the criteria you have set forth within it?
jason-phillips 6mo ago
> it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering After the resurrection of Twitter, the conservative-leaning contingent left for X. This place was left to the miserable left, and as you would expect, is now mostly intolerable.
ozgrakkurt 6mo ago
This is never the problem with people talking this stuff. People don't naturally obsess about these things. It indicates that there are political problems.
infinitewars 6mo ago
[dead]
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
troyvit 6mo ago
Go through all the positive comments and upvote them. It feels good.

wileydragonfly 6mo ago

Whiteys on the moon

NamlchakKhandro 6mo ago
[flagged]

guax 6mo ago

I would be more depressed if, looking at the current political landscape this corner decided to be entirely alienated or oblivious to the environment in which this massive achievement is made.

whimsicalism 6mo ago
do you think the current environment is more or less just than it was during the 1969 moon landing?
- downrightmike 6mo ago
  Nixon wasn't in office yet, but he did have his campaign manager got to Vietnam and promise the VietCong a better deal if they walked away from negotiations, which lead to FIVE more years of war and countless lives lost for nothing other than a point to talk about on his soap box
  - kurthr 6mo ago
    The difference seems to be that Nixon may have been crooked, but he was largely competent. He operated on experience, expertise, and causal reality. Our current political situation is largely free of facts, knowledge, or causality. Much of the corruption that happens today is in plain sight and basically ignored. The goal is governance through depoliticization and post-truth infotainment. Note that Nixon was actually impeached by his own party and would have been removed for what would now be a single day of news cycle, only on a few networks/papers, and completely ignored by a major political party.
    - wileydragonfly 6mo ago
      [flagged]
      - paulryanrogers 6mo ago
        Nixon was on track to be impeached, convicted, and thrown in jail. The people were demanding it. His resignation was basically a "you can't fire me, I quit!" moment. Ford's pardon of Nixon was and remains controversial.
        wileydragonfly 6mo ago
        So.. he wasn’t impeached. Thanks for interrupting.
- skeeter2020 6mo ago
  I think the tech world is fundamentally difference, though I'm not old enough to experience it in '69. I don't believe we had tech moguls who built enormous wealth and realized they could by the influence they couldn't muster with social influence, and that has made the world net-worse.
  - Gagarin1917 6mo ago
    What’s the point of focusing on one aspect of the world? Taken as a whole, the 60’s were far more intense and violent. The Vietnam War. The draft. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Racial inequality and protests. Several major assassinations. Nixon in the White House. And that’s just the US. The world is net-better even if certain areas still need improvement. But there’s really no point to hyperfocusing on just the things that are worse.
  - bostik 6mo ago
    > I don't believe we had tech moguls who built enormous wealth and realized they could by the influence Didn't this just describe the robber barons of the Gilded Age? Moguls and oligarchs of the day, yes. Amassed their fortunes on the emerging frontier technology of the time, I'd say so. Wielded enormous power over political discourse and essentially owned the law makers of the day. Rhymes, for sure. It doesn't really matter whether you live in a democracy if the the very issues that are even allowed to be voted on are decided by an elite, wealthy and politically connected group.
  - whimsicalism 6mo ago
    I find it odd how reluctant you are to say it is more just today. I think it is no comparison.
- guax 6mo ago
  I don't think is a fair question because the expectations are wildly different. The 80s and 90s transition gave us expectations of policy, peace and progress that were very different than the 60s. 69 had two things going on for it, the war was not news and on its first signs of being scalled back, Nixon had announced a retraction of force for September (but ended up extending the whole thing to 75) and this would be the first moon landing, there was nothing like it. From 1969 to today, we're waaaaay better. But from 6 months ago there is clearly an elephant in the room taking a lot of attention.

telman17 6mo ago

These people existed in the Apollo era just not on a website. We weren't exactly living in a utopia then either and you'd have difficulty convincing some folks to be excited about space exploration then too. Some people feel their outlook on the world takes precedence. And they'll shit in other people's celebrations to get their point across. Best to downvote or ignore them and embrace what nuance you can find.

modeless 6mo ago
My problem isn't that these people exist in the world. My problem is they're increasingly drowning out other voices in a community I'm part of. I would prefer significantly more active moderation against politics and general non-technical negativity on this site.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
aworks 6mo ago
I was 10 in 1969. Landing on the moon was a communal and shared event for a large percentage of the population, via one of the three television networks. As was the war in Vietnam. Many decades later, our institutions are in need of rebuild, for the common good. Maybe this event is a "small step" in that direction.
- mrguyorama 6mo ago
  The Apollo program only barely reached 50% approval during the Apollo 11 landing. They canceled landings because people stopped caring within a couple moon landings. The popularity of Apollo is fictional. Artemis has dramatically better popularity than Apollo.
  - aworks 6mo ago
    I"m not saying it had high approval. I'm saying it had high community awareness, unlike the current mission. I was in a bookstore where they were playing the radio over their speakers as Apollo 13 reported problems. That seems different to our current fragmented, de-institutionalized world, FWIW. Maybe there are tiktok memes that I'm not aware of.

huflungdung 6mo ago

[dead]

Eji1700 6mo ago

I have family who worked for NASA until the 70s. They’re one of the biggest sources of criticism of this project. There are negative things to observe about this project. They should not be ignored

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 6mo ago
I'd love to read your family member(s) criticisms; anywhere to do so? The perspective of a former NASA employee could be fascinating. If you don't mind me asking, what did they do for NASA?
- Eji1700 6mo ago
  > I'd love to read your family member(s) criticisms; anywhere to do so? The perspective of a former NASA employee could be fascinating. Personal emails? These aren't the kind of people to blog. If you want a brief summary they, like many, feel this whole thing is a farce due to how the project has be designed and spec'd. I think smarter every day did a wonderful youtube video comparing what kind of documentation and planning they had for the past launches, and how it sure as shit doesn't look like they're anywhere near that right now (he's much nicer about it). NASA is doing their best, but the simple truth is the actual "landing" plan feels like it vomited out by a bunch a suits who don't understand reality and wanted headlines. A decent anecdote from the discussion that summarizes feelings: One of them got to spend a week in Cape Kennedy due to winning an Essay contest and met Frank Borman. To quote him > The topic of the essay was, What is man's future in space? > I believe that, had I written, 55 years from now we will beat the Chinese to the Moon, I would not have won.
Gagarin1917 6mo ago
I don’t think the criticisms on HN are related to Artemis’ imperfect concept and technical design. They’re almost exclusively related to political reasons. “There are problems in the world, therefore I can’t enjoy this” is flawed reasoning and isn’t even something that they apply to any other interest. It’s just special pleading.
- 6mo ago

throwaway132448 6mo ago

It’s unfortunate, but if you’re blaming the people in the thread for this, I think you’re directing your energy in the wrong direction. Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division and distraction instead. If you want people to appreciate the bigger picture, you can’t keep forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook. The HN that you’re presumably nostalgic for existed in a time when there was a lot more fat on the bone, and every efficiency hadn’t been extracted for nebulous benefit to the average person.

YZF 6mo ago
Is there really less "fat on the bone" though? What metric are you tracking for that and what are the historical norms? "forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook" -> social media? Rather than assigning blame I think it's fair to ask the people here to behave. Maybe it's not their fault they spend their day doom scrolling and have the attention span of a cat but they do have agency to change that. [EDIT: This is an attempt at humor] Isn't "Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division" asking for politics? The way we get at "those people" (and let's not even argue about who they are) is to regulate ourselves (or for the moderators to do that) and have a more substantive and positive discussion regardless of our perceptions.
- throwaway132448 6mo ago
  > Is there really less "fat on the bone" though? What metric are you tracking for that and what are the historical norms? It’s just my experience over the last 15 years. If it doesn’t align with yours, that’s nice to know. > "forcing them to live on a shorter and shorter term outlook" -> social media? Sure, but it could be lots of other things like 24hr news or the emergence of the gig economy. > Isn't "Focus on the people who foment and benefit from this division" asking for politics? No it’s not, it’s asking for agency, personal accountability and self-awareness, as you yourself allude to. If that means politics for you, that’s up to you. I don’t imply to “get at” anyone, but to do best by ourselves instead of doing best by those who benefit from dividing or distracting us.

supliminal 6mo ago

It is possible but you have to cultivate it. There is no mechanism here that automates it, so it’s up to each author’s sentiment to shape the outcome as they see fit. Submit threads that are apolitical and guide conversations to be positive.

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

rishabhaiover 6mo ago

If one can't find their true purpose in life, they resort to seek purity in morals and virtue (in themselves and people around them).

awesome_dude 6mo ago

Not all hackers!

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]

happytoexplain 6mo ago

Yes, but it's depressing because of the environmental factors causing the problem, not the people experiencing the problem.

yodsanklai 6mo ago

> it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering I quickly browsed the top 10 comments, didn't see much negativity. And maybe this is because this is a forum of "tech/geeks/nerds/stem people" that you'd expect some educated and critical comments.

NamlchakKhandro 6mo ago
Clearly not looking hard enough

Fricken 6mo ago

There was a man on the moon in 1969. 65 years of so-called technological progress and the US is worse than it was before, so we can rule out an interest in technological progress as a reason for any of this. Getting all teary eyed about a second rate mission from a has-been space agency is kind of cringe-inducing, HN. Maybe we should revive Pamela Anderson's career, or bring Mike Tyson out of retirement to fight a youtube influencer in an effort to re-live past glory. Oh, yeah, that's right. America already did that. America did that and it was sad.

skeeter2020 6mo ago

There's just so little science here though, to expect the audience on HN to get excited about redoing something 65 years later for the purpose of political grand-standing and nationalism while the world literally burns and so many are hurting... I'd be more upset if a bunch of insulated tech nerds obliviously continued to along their easy trajectories without a though of everyone else. We may not be the 1% but we're definitely the 5%

thesmtsolver2 6mo ago
If our ancestors had listened to arguments like this, we might all be still in a small zone in Africa.
- paulryanrogers 6mo ago
  Opportunistically venturing out of Africa is one thing. Sending a couple people around a distant and desolate rock, while the homeworld burns due to unforced errors, is another.
  - nomel 6mo ago
    Alternatively, if we don't become a multi-planetary species, we will be exterminated by a meteor. There's enough excess to do a bit of species saving multi-tasking. For an alternate perspective, the development for this (which includes future launches) was only 80% the cost of ~500 miles of railway in California! [1] [1] https://www.kabc.com/2026/04/06/high-speed-rail-cost-now-at-126b/ https://www.kabc.com/2026/04/06/high-speed-rail-cost-now-at-...
    - paulryanrogers 6mo ago
      It's unlikely we'll be exterminated by a meteor for many millions of years. Life as we know it is already facing existential risks here and now. Doubtful we'll ever establish permanent residency anywhere else when we cannot sustain ourselves on the rock we evolved on.

sega_sai 6mo ago

I think it would have been much better, if the nation that launched that mission did not in the same time start a war... I personally simply cannot separate these two things.

Gagarin1917 6mo ago
Have you always felt the same way about Apollo and the Vietnam War? Or are you considering this for the first time?
- sega_sai 6mo ago
  I was not around at that time, so I have not considered it. But it is a fair point.
  - Gagarin1917 6mo ago
    Even with darkness in the world, it’s still healthy and moral to appreciate the good that happens. I’d say it’s actually important to do so in life in general. Emotional maturity is balancing both the good and bad in life and not letting either completely dominate your reality.
- whackernews 6mo ago
  I’m finding this a lot. I always found the scrutiny of Trump to be quite over the top and never really found him to be any more corrupt or awful than any other politician, just that he was openly anti establishment. Which is what I guessed was the reason for the hyper scrutiny. I ask some people about Iraq and Afghanistan and they never really seem to know as much or have as much detail as they do with how illegal this Iran war is. I find that odd and have maybe chalked it up to this over-scrutiny again. To be clear I actually think this is good. I feel like we might finally be looking at politicians with the amount of scrutiny we need to, but am not optimistic it will continue when the next pro-establishment character is installed. People also seem to be on board with the Ukraine war, which I also understand but find strange that fighting wars on foreign soil are sometimes “good” and sometimes “bad”? For me I have a simple rule; if they’re not at the birder of my own country I’m not interested. You can argue details and complexities but the way I see it is that wars are a fucking mess and there are lots of complexities that can be used to sell you either way. If you’re not there, you don’t know. I always wonder if France and the UK hadn’t declared war on Germany, would WWII ever happened? It’s an interesting one and more of a thought experiment but the implications are interesting and raises some very touchy moral questions. It’s basically a massive trolley problem question with lots of unknowns.

fortran77 6mo ago

[flagged]

none2585 6mo ago
There's just a lot of us who don't agree with you! Wild I know
kikokikokiko 6mo ago
HN is heavily populated by and biased towards left left leaning west coast IT adjacent people. But it still makes me wonder for how long can the US keep it's dominance on the world stage with so many people that think this way in positions of power on the arguably most important econonomic/social area from now on.
dzjkb 6mo ago
you can't be serious, have an honest look at the history of US involvment around the world in the last ~80 years and tell me how can you be pro-West and pro-capitalist... hell, even just the situation we're in right now perfectly illustrates what I mean - a rapist president trying to save face and causing the death and suffering of thousands of innocent people - and you're wrong if you think capitalist forces didn't lead us to this point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_wha...
- nntwozz 6mo ago
  “It is much safer to be feared than loved because ...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” ― Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

tdb7893 6mo ago

The top comments complaining about other comments complaining about stuff really shows how negative internet discourse is hard to avoid. I don't think these comments are bad (meta-discussion is a good thing in general) but they also seems to embody that same negativity. This comment also isn't positive and the cycle continues. I agree that people are often too negative and this is a good example of how that negativity is contagious.

kube-system 6mo ago

Hacker culture has deep political and philosophical roots, it's intrinsic to the community.

runarberg 6mo ago

There simply isn’t denying the political nature of this mission. Majority of statements from NASA about it specify America’s need for space dominance, thank the Trump administration, and assert American exceptionalism in some other way. The discussion on HN simply reflects the rhetoric which comes from NASA.

not_kurt_godel 6mo ago

How do you evaluate your own comment by the criteria you have set forth within it?

jason-phillips 6mo ago

> it's seemingly impossible to have a single thread about something like this that isn't almost entirely negative or political bickering After the resurrection of Twitter, the conservative-leaning contingent left for X. This place was left to the miserable left, and as you would expect, is now mostly intolerable.

ozgrakkurt 6mo ago

This is never the problem with people talking this stuff. People don't naturally obsess about these things. It indicates that there are political problems.

infinitewars 6mo ago

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deleted 6mo ago

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troyvit 6mo ago

Go through all the positive comments and upvote them. It feels good.