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So I can build a gun to defend my property from the government.
Huh, I'd have figured the opposite as you adjust to needing fewer overall calories.
THE OSPREY IS THE GREATEST YOU SHUT YOUR GODDAMNED MOUTH IT IS A RECRUITMENT TOOL AND ALSO AWESOME
of course not.
it's science fiction
we haven't even found an asteroid with a composition any more valuable than rocks on earth
to say nothing of the cost and risk of getting out there and getting the materials back
why would anyone be for space mining?
might as well be for quantum magic spells and bioengineered fire-breathing dragons.
you've got my vote
working out a way to land a guy on mars and landing a guy on mars are different projects and the first thing isn't a half-bad way to spend resources.
anyway, for science! is a good reason a lot of the time.
besides, it's pocket change compared to say, your defense spending. Most of which isn't developing any tech or doing any science at all.
you're back in the defense industry?
Because it's cool and because I read an article saying it'll totally work and because it was in a scifi book that I liked.
you can buy a lathe and a dude who knows how to work for a lot less money
OK you're happy with your lot. Your needs are met and I guess that's what's important to you, so you feel we should be generous to others?
I am not in the same situation. Even narrowing the focus to taxation, it's not as rosy for me, but more broadly...
... any way I can finish that sentence will just draw a chorus of mockery and a fucking speech from somebody about privilege.
Let just say that I would not be satisfied with your life, as you describe it. My focus is somewhat more broad than considering what I need and what makes me happy.
Ugh. Ugh. Fuck this speech.
We're supposed to feel good about ourselves because we let a talented musician die in the ruins of his house, because, some years after his death, a recording of his music is floating through space?
How about we, y'know, fucking built him a new house?
You want to do something uplifting for all mankind? We could end poverty. We have the resources and the technology to eliminate extreme poverty for the entire world. Not a single human being would lack shelter, food, or clean water due to inability to pay.
I'd prefer Arcane Jetpacks and Æther powered telepathy, thanks.
Yes, and I'd like to shift around a lot of that defense spending in the long term, too!
our robot progeny meeting xeno ai
declaring intergalactic war over proprietary charging cables
That's basically the sort of awesomeness I was talking about.
Click here for a horrible H/A thread with details.
oh yeah
there's tons and tons of waste
just about all the big projects that make war hobbyists hard are horrible boondoggles.
yeah, until launch costs are drastically reduced manned space flight is a total waste. I think a lot of cool and useful science has come out of the unmanned program (which is routinely cannibalized to feed the manned side).
yeah i kind of reflexively wanted to defend it too
but damn
it really hasn't worked out that well
I'm pretty tired now.
Still, at least I don't have a broken leg.
He lives on as cheezburger grease in our hearts.
i daresay your last sentence undermines your whole argument, good sir
Interestingly this would also be a far more effective means of going about the "war on terror".
It's harder to radicalise people that aren't desperate in the first place. Not impossible, but harder.
surface of the moon has platinum like woah, for example
also for example having, some time in the future, automatic rocket fuel making on the moon could make sending space probes errywhere a lot cheaper in the long run
for example.
but fucking aquaman keeps getting in the way
That's not a normative statement; I'm not saying this is the best possible way things could be, but afaik they are they way things are presently. To go back and say we shouldn't have landed on the moon or invested so heavily in space exploration generally is to create an alternate universe where literally any series of events could have transpired, with outcomes potentially completely different (for better or worse) than the ones we have now.
Going forward, though, I would suggest that spending on defense is definitely not the sole or even primary source of innovation, and can be pretty easily reduced substantially with basically no impact on our technology or security situation. Investment in space exploration, though, I'm not as sure about.
But then, I'm not a fucking expert in either of those things, so wtf.
I guarantee you that whatever problem you're having with your life, if it is a problem that could be fixed by money, you would see more personal benefit from a more progressive tax schedule than a less progressive one.
but
there is literally no actual scientific value to landing a guy on mars
like
it doesn't actually answer any questions except the ones that might pop up in trying to implement it, and those will almost entirely be engineering questions.
I am really not seeing the downside here.
Spinoff technology is basically the entire point of speculative or academic physical research, isn't it? We are researching because we want to know, but we also want to see what we can do with that new knowledge.
We COULD have discovered it another way - but we didn't. A research path that is interesting and captivating is as good a way as any to struggle with new challenges to produce new technology.
Manned space exploration is quite silly, I agree, but sending automated or autonomous devices into space to learn more about our planets and solar system, etc?
I also think it is pretty important on a number of levels to work on the technology for superior propulsion and power generation for our spacecraft, but that's something private industry and academic research can totally handle (and are doing right now, political issues with it aside)
I'm gonna add jumping jacks to my work-out routine today...
Is... is that a good idea?
Like CCGs? Check my CCG's Thread in CF and help me playtest it!
yeah sort of
doing SBIR work for a small company in cambridge