tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4672881018321440403.post7810273640165536425..comments2024-01-08T09:12:42.920-05:00Comments on SF and Nonsense: Mars or bust!Edward M. Lernerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15620756142619513714noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4672881018321440403.post-66026651709903066832014-01-05T16:29:48.636-05:002014-01-05T16:29:48.636-05:00The dinosaurs DID have a good run (not even counti...The dinosaurs DID have a good run (not even counting their avian descendants). <br /><br />- EdEdward M. Lernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15620756142619513714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4672881018321440403.post-69423885102043817612014-01-05T16:15:37.071-05:002014-01-05T16:15:37.071-05:00Just considering big expensive projects with no im...Just considering big expensive projects with no immediate reward put me in mind of the 'Pyramids project' ... you know King Tut, Khufu, those guys. Many Egyptologists believe, impressive as moving big stones is, that the organization required to build the pyramids—management, skills developed, housing, feeding, the math, transport, etc.—powered Egypt to greatness. Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination. On the Heinlein comment, it was impossible before the Apollo missions to know all the developmental breakthroughs and rewards that would follow.<br /><br />And Ed, I'm optimistic that we'll yet prove to be more intelligent than the dinosaurs ... but they had a good run.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4672881018321440403.post-84650009897661056702014-01-01T21:07:38.047-05:002014-01-01T21:07:38.047-05:00Todd,
Re humanity's eggs all being held in o...Todd, <br /><br />Re humanity's eggs all being held in one basket, Larry Niven supposedly said, "The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn't have a space program. And if we become extinct because we don't have a space program, it'll serve us right!"<br /><br />- EdEdward M. Lernerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15620756142619513714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4672881018321440403.post-9034101911599072192014-01-01T20:17:54.646-05:002014-01-01T20:17:54.646-05:00I'm a "small government" person, but...I'm a "small government" person, but make an exception for space. Heinlein said (I admit I didn't do the math to confirm it) that the Apollo missions paid for themselves several times over. I think we should go to Mars, and maybe before that, go to the moon and stay there. I once posted a message at my government office that "the country that puts the first permanent base on the moon is the new world leader". Of course, I immediately got pushback about the wastefulness of such....and a mention that if the Soviets had got there first, the Cold War might have ended differently.<br /><br />Speaking in terms of the future (as in, the next million years), I think not having our eggs in the single Earthly basket is prudent, or else humanity will be some "ancient dead culture" that some aliens study.<br /><br />Toddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13420104110843532513noreply@blogger.com