I think that this number will actually start to increase again within the coming two decades. No thanks to Congress, though.
11 thoughts on “Too Pessimistic”
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I think that this number will actually start to increase again within the coming two decades. No thanks to Congress, though.
Comments are closed.
Hopefully within 3-4 decades he’ll have to change the scale of the Y axis by a ^10 or two (curtesty of Bigelow, Musk, et. al.).
If they ever invent FTL, well be able to thank Congressional budgetary policy for inspiring millions to walk on other worlds without ever coming back.
A lot of people often miss the title of the image in XKCD, so just in case here it is in full:
“The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space–each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.”
Luckily for homo sapiens we have more than one culture.
And the best part about the future? The culture of Jeff Biezos and Elon Musk will go to the stars, and the culture of “fix all our problems on Earth first” and cost-plus contracts will be one of the cultures we study centuries from now in the acheological sense.
“Luckily for homo sapiens we have more than one culture.”
This highlights some rather interesting thought that I keep coming across over and over – it seems widely assumed that when we do start going into space in earnest, it will have to be as a monoculture. I’ve never understood why that is a requirement. If anything, I would think Balkanization and competition would be a better cultural driving force – look at the Chinese monoculture in the 1400’s vs. Europe.
One may hope. And I do hope you are right.
“it seems widely assumed that when we do start going into space in earnest, it will have to be as a monoculture. I’ve never understood why that is a requirement.”
You must not read much science fiction; a great number of SF stories involve different cultures moving to other worlds. James Blish’s “Cities in Flight” is neither the only nor the earliest example.
A Feudal society may work best for colonies:
Strong community with two-way loyalty.
“Luckily for homo sapiens we have more than one culture.”
Unluckily most of them are here in force…more often than not, illegally.
I’m in Agreence with Brock. The solution to our problem can be solved with a simple A & B Equation. A) Being that humanity seeks to correct it’s own mistake, B) Being that we stop blaming eachother and realize that the scale of influence is at a unprecedented approach.
So If we are to develope pass our Earth-Bound, Homosapien existance, we must first fix our mistakes. The Law’s of the Land are contary to The Law of The Most High.
Remember Zheng Ho? The Chinese do. They won’t make that same mistake again.
“In German, or English, I know how to count down…
And I’m learning Chinese, said Wehrner Von Braun”.