Via RocketForge, apparently one of the things that came up at the recent ISDC conference was 10 reasons not to go into space.

I particularly like #9 Space is "just another rich white guy's playground", kind of like the deep ocean is just another rich white guy's playground, right? In the short term, space development will quite likely involve rich white guys getting their jollies. The RWGs will subsidize technology development that will get the rest of us up there. Sounds great to me - after all, joyrides into space will have a lot better impact on the long term future of humanity than an equivalent amount of money spent on a game fishing vacation.

Incidentally, it looks like there's an NSS blog now, with Arthur Smith at the helm (or at least lurking in the pilothouse :-) I look forward to reading it.

"one nut up there could take us all out"

If that were true then I thinks a lot more people would be trying to get up there.

One nut DOWN HERE can take us all out. At least it's harder to get up there.

Most of life's good things were once the toys of rich white guys. Telephones, cars, computers, power boats, tennis and golf. Not to mention indoor plumbing. RWG's are a priceless resource, and should be encouraged to multiply and keep discovering new toys. .

John has it. The list of things that started out as "rich white guys'" playthings is impressive. The telephone and automobile alone ought to clue anyone in to the fact that starting out as a RWG plaything can still lead to a technology bringing greater quality of life and empowerment to the masses.

Refrigerator? Airplane? Radio? Internet? Cellphone?

Even Aluminum, if you can believe it, used to be a RWG item once upon a time. 's'truth.

AMEN. to that list

AMEN. to that list