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why depressing? I've never understood this fascination some have with spending billions going on a fun trip to mars. That sort of thing should be funded by ric

why depressing? I've never understood this fascination some have with spending billions going on a fun trip to mars. That sort of thing should be funded by rich people or corporations who see market value in doing it. Not paid for by taxes. We have enough problems to solve here that will actually benefit people.

outworlder 13y ago
This is the saddest comment to appear on HN for a while. Amazing that you don't think space exploration will benefit people. What other problems would you rather focus instead? I bet most, if not all of them, are caused by poor wealth distribution, not lack of money.
- nolok 13y ago
  This comment happens quite often, on HN and elsewhere. It's probably due to the decades it takes for space research invention to spread into consumer products (and even then, people don't realize it). You can find the same kind of comments about theoretical physics being useless, for the same reason (but even worse). The amount of research done for putting people in space that end up "actually benefiting people" in tremendous. The current research for extreme water purification for the ISS alone is worth it, given the renewed importance of clean water now and in the next century(ies).
- yoran 13y ago
  He'd rather see millions of VC money being put into the next SnapChat, which has obviously much more benefit to humanity than space exploration!
  - bolder88 13y ago
    Certainly not. I'd rather see taxes lowered, so people can make their own decisions about how they want to spend their own money. I'm perfectly happy to live my life on Earth. If they suddenly colonise Mars, and it's fantastic, and it makes you live twice as long and have superpowers, I would still rather stay here. I'm simply not interested in it. People often cite the technological advances - "velcro" etc but I don't think you're getting value for money if that's your aim, and again, I think it should be done in the private sector rather than forcing people who have absolutely no interest in space, to pay for it.
    - rodgerd 13y ago
      > I'd rather see taxes lowered And here was I thinking "spend money on more web apps" was the nadir of human ambition on HN.
      - bolder88 13y ago
        I think the ambition on HN is generally * Make another useless timewasting webapp * Sell it for billions * Solve world hunger, philanthropy, make the world all better again
- randallsquared 13y ago
  > What other problems would you rather focus instead? I'm not sure the grandparent's comment was about finding someplace else for their government to spend a pile of money. We do not have to centrally plan this.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- bolder88 13y ago
  I'm sure it would benefit people in a few generations time. The issue I have with it is that I don't want to be forced to pay for it by my government. I would rather not force the public to fund scientific research.
  - bane 13y ago
    In other words you only want to benefit yourself and damn the future generations?
    - bolder88 13y ago
      Not at all. I am happy to live now, just as happy as I would have been to live 100 years ago, or 1000 years ago. My happiness is not tied to technological enhancement.
- bane 13y ago
  Anecdotally, I usually hear this kind of comment from people who are deeply conservative in their beliefs (not necessarily politically Conservative with a capital C, but more...ideologs). For some people, when reality doesn't line up with their internal ideals of how the world should be, they want to incessantly scratch at that itch even long after it's become a festering wound...when walking to the store and getting some itch cream would have solved it all. Onward, outward, forward...progress is scary stuff. Otherwise functional adults often have deep rooted terrors that cause them to want to withdraw into the known.
  - bolder88 13y ago
    I do consider myself conservative. But I don't understand why some feel the need to "progress". Why not just live and enjoy your life instead of constantly wanting to progress to the future. Are you that depressed about your current life that you need to strive for technological improvements to make it bearable? Would you still be able to live a happy fulfilled life if absolutely NO "progress" was made during it? I would.
    - bane 13y ago
      There are two constants: 1) The world changes, progress or no. Tomorrow is different than today. Someday, something will change and that tomorrow is the one that's going to make your steady state suck. And that will be just the first of many changing tomorrows. The harder you cling onto your desire to keep yourself and everybody else's world trapped in your comfort zone, the harder it will be to catch up to the accumulated tomorrows that have occurred. 2) Your life, whatever it is and I mean this without intention of offense, stinks for me. I don't want it, and the world that makes your life comfortable makes mine unbearable or at least unbelievably irritating in some aspect somewhere. For you to have your comfortable life forever means mine has to suck somewhere and sometime. HN is about building things and changing the future...and if you're really clever, getting paid for it. If those things aren't of interest to you, and the world you've built around yourself is just fine and you can live in that world till you die, more power to you, but you're probably in the wrong discussion forum. (you joined HN about two months ago, telling me that your assertion that your world is happy and completely fulfilled is obviously and trivially false, or you wouldn't have bothered joining up in the first place. Something about your life is unfulfilled, social interaction, business, technical know-how, whatever, and you sought an improvement in your life out. The difference between what you keep saying in your comments and what you actually do is probably going to mean some hard self-evaluation before you can resolve that fundamental cognitive dissonance and be a healthy minded contributor to a place like HN.)

outworlder 13y ago

This is the saddest comment to appear on HN for a while. Amazing that you don't think space exploration will benefit people. What other problems would you rather focus instead? I bet most, if not all of them, are caused by poor wealth distribution, not lack of money.

nolok 13y ago
This comment happens quite often, on HN and elsewhere. It's probably due to the decades it takes for space research invention to spread into consumer products (and even then, people don't realize it). You can find the same kind of comments about theoretical physics being useless, for the same reason (but even worse). The amount of research done for putting people in space that end up "actually benefiting people" in tremendous. The current research for extreme water purification for the ISS alone is worth it, given the renewed importance of clean water now and in the next century(ies).
yoran 13y ago
He'd rather see millions of VC money being put into the next SnapChat, which has obviously much more benefit to humanity than space exploration!
- bolder88 13y ago
  Certainly not. I'd rather see taxes lowered, so people can make their own decisions about how they want to spend their own money. I'm perfectly happy to live my life on Earth. If they suddenly colonise Mars, and it's fantastic, and it makes you live twice as long and have superpowers, I would still rather stay here. I'm simply not interested in it. People often cite the technological advances - "velcro" etc but I don't think you're getting value for money if that's your aim, and again, I think it should be done in the private sector rather than forcing people who have absolutely no interest in space, to pay for it.
  - rodgerd 13y ago
    > I'd rather see taxes lowered And here was I thinking "spend money on more web apps" was the nadir of human ambition on HN.
    - bolder88 13y ago
      I think the ambition on HN is generally * Make another useless timewasting webapp * Sell it for billions * Solve world hunger, philanthropy, make the world all better again
randallsquared 13y ago
> What other problems would you rather focus instead? I'm not sure the grandparent's comment was about finding someplace else for their government to spend a pile of money. We do not have to centrally plan this.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
bolder88 13y ago
I'm sure it would benefit people in a few generations time. The issue I have with it is that I don't want to be forced to pay for it by my government. I would rather not force the public to fund scientific research.
- bane 13y ago
  In other words you only want to benefit yourself and damn the future generations?
  - bolder88 13y ago
    Not at all. I am happy to live now, just as happy as I would have been to live 100 years ago, or 1000 years ago. My happiness is not tied to technological enhancement.
bane 13y ago
Anecdotally, I usually hear this kind of comment from people who are deeply conservative in their beliefs (not necessarily politically Conservative with a capital C, but more...ideologs). For some people, when reality doesn't line up with their internal ideals of how the world should be, they want to incessantly scratch at that itch even long after it's become a festering wound...when walking to the store and getting some itch cream would have solved it all. Onward, outward, forward...progress is scary stuff. Otherwise functional adults often have deep rooted terrors that cause them to want to withdraw into the known.
- bolder88 13y ago
  I do consider myself conservative. But I don't understand why some feel the need to "progress". Why not just live and enjoy your life instead of constantly wanting to progress to the future. Are you that depressed about your current life that you need to strive for technological improvements to make it bearable? Would you still be able to live a happy fulfilled life if absolutely NO "progress" was made during it? I would.
  - bane 13y ago
    There are two constants: 1) The world changes, progress or no. Tomorrow is different than today. Someday, something will change and that tomorrow is the one that's going to make your steady state suck. And that will be just the first of many changing tomorrows. The harder you cling onto your desire to keep yourself and everybody else's world trapped in your comfort zone, the harder it will be to catch up to the accumulated tomorrows that have occurred. 2) Your life, whatever it is and I mean this without intention of offense, stinks for me. I don't want it, and the world that makes your life comfortable makes mine unbearable or at least unbelievably irritating in some aspect somewhere. For you to have your comfortable life forever means mine has to suck somewhere and sometime. HN is about building things and changing the future...and if you're really clever, getting paid for it. If those things aren't of interest to you, and the world you've built around yourself is just fine and you can live in that world till you die, more power to you, but you're probably in the wrong discussion forum. (you joined HN about two months ago, telling me that your assertion that your world is happy and completely fulfilled is obviously and trivially false, or you wouldn't have bothered joining up in the first place. Something about your life is unfulfilled, social interaction, business, technical know-how, whatever, and you sought an improvement in your life out. The difference between what you keep saying in your comments and what you actually do is probably going to mean some hard self-evaluation before you can resolve that fundamental cognitive dissonance and be a healthy minded contributor to a place like HN.)