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What interstellar exploration ...there hasn't been any.
Theres no such thing and none on the horrizon.
Private enterprise doesn't seem to be doing to well at the moment regarding investing in the future.
Take a look at privatisation of energy as a small example and thats something vital for the future.
Private companies using investors money don't usually get the green light to pour money into ...this might work it might not.
If we go to the moon with your investment ...when and if you get something back could be a long time.
So the Chinese government will go to the moon instead.
no point in Barclays putting any money in.
America are out of the running.
Well, you can bring that point in here if you like but don't try to suggest that it is counter to anything I have argued for because you're the one bringing it up, not me. I was talking only about the specifics of diverting financial and intellectual resources away from 'space race' direction, I haven't specified where I think the money and intellect would be better used.
I don't see it as a simple either/or, so, just by moving resources away from 'space race' technology, doesn't mean I wouldn't want resources used for scientific advances. In fact, I would, I think it would be a good idea, perhaps not down any line of enquiry that is popular or common at the moment, maybe more in a direction that we haven't thought of yet, a new paradigm for scientific advancement with the specific aims of creating a more equal, fair and free place for everyone.
Ok, but has the wealth stayed within a group or groups of people who were already at an advantage or in a priviledged position in comparison with the rest of the world? I don't know but I would guess it has. And, even if the wealth has spread to more divergent groups, has it done so in a levelling way or a way that has hierarchical impact of wealth and power. I don't know the answer but would also guess the latter. So, yes, impact on humanity, but is it an impact that has really changed anything, changed the hierarchies of power?
And do you not think that advances can be made the other way around too -imagine the uses and then create the technology, rather than praise technologies that come about as a kind of by-product? Surely reversing the process is more efficient?
Well the first and second worlds had a go ...maybe the third world will do it differently.
All this money and technology and what do we get?
Mostly shiny things.
The world is more divided than ever and our problems seem to mount by the day.
So much for all this advanced living thanks to going to the moon.
That's the point though. Things like the space program create a climate where technological advances are made at an accelerated rate, not because of funding but because of the obstacles presented. I doubt that if you took that same amount of money and said "develop technology to alleviate suffering" you would get the same advances.
Microwave ovens are an off-shoot of radar. Computers got smaller because of the need for space in the apollo missions, nuclear power happened because of the nuclear bomb, GPS was first used by the US military, most of the medicines and vaccinations that we use were developed for the armed forces first, jet engines because we needed an edge over the Nazis.
If things had been different, if we hadn't been going to war then human technology would have stagnated by now. You can choose to disbelieve it if you like, doesn't mean however that it isn't the truth. Most Human ingenuity is the result of our desire to explore or our desire to kill.
If we hadn't aimed to create all that technology for the likes of space exploration and (regrettably) the military, we would have not come across to developing countless inventions and advances in science and medicine.
I grasp it but I disagree.
If you have no need to go into space, you have no need to build rockets. If you don't build rockets, then many technological advances gained as a result would have not happened. Because there is certain technology (such as building rockets) that is only applicable for going into space).
Nobody is going to be building something that is not going to be used. Whichever way you want to look at it, there are countless (and I apologise for using bold again) inventions and discoveries today that we would NOT have today, and probably never would, if it wasn't for space exploration research. Simply because we would never discover them otherwise.
A great deal of advances in science, medicine and technology have been achieved by coincidence while researching for something else. It is because of this that it is simply not the case that we would have come to inventing so many things we enjoy today regardless of the space race.
I agree with Kat.
We know what has happened so far and why it happened and Kat agrees with you.
Where she differs is you lot seem to think it is written in stone ...some kind of natural law like gravity ...that we only advance in times of war and stress.
I would imagine the wheel was invented to haul timber and stone.
As for saying American indians weren't civilised I find a bit sad.
Their knowledge of nature was awsome ...their relationship with the earth was wholesome.
If I had a choice of where to live and how to bring my kids up ...I'd rather it be with those indians than with this self destructive and largely meaningless world.
Yes, we would still have technology, but it would have taken a lot longer to get to us, and some of it we still wouldn't have.
Look at the internet, a by-product of a desire to have a secure method of communcation should there have been a nuclear war. Solar power, mostly developed and refined by a requirement for limitless energy for space craft.
We would still have stumbled upon these things at some point, but not as soon or as early as we did.
Besides, my other points about why we need to be in space are just as valid. We're running out of space, we're running out of resources and being confined to one planet means the entire species could vanish in the blink of an eye should some catastrophe befall the Earth. We need to explore and expand, or we die.
Wrong again ...the internet was invented by the colliding hard on crew for exchanging vast amounts of data over huge distances.
It may well turn out to be the most important thing man ever built.
Some people tell me capitalism gives us all these things ...no it doesn't.
You're wrong, dude. The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust, fault-tolerant and distributed computer networks.
Where they are today is all based on the discoveries for a nuclear weapon. Without that, the HC would not be there today. That's what we are saying. Much of our technology comes from research into either war or venturing into space.
You crack me up sometimes!
If you don't need to go into space, fine you don't build rockets. If you need to build the technology that came about as a result of building rockets, but that need to build rockets hadn't been there, the technology would have still been created in direct response to need, rather than as a by-product of rockets.
Also, I find it intellectually amusing to consider the technology that could have been created as a by-product where humanitarian gains were the main objective, like space travel as a by-product of scientific explorations into feeding the world.
Provide a credible alternative theory please?
Well, looks like we all agree to disagree with you.
Well, exactly. So let's fuck war and space travel off and not bemoan the technologies that we might miss out by not engaging in war or space but instead celebrate the technologies that come about from other scientific explorations.