Political Commentary, Space

The Coming Augustine Pushback

10 Comments

Jeff Manber has some thoughts on the upcoming (and inevitable) backlash against the upcoming Augustine report.

I’m not sure I quite agree on his taxonomy of the opposition. Or rather, the limited degree to which he describes and breaks it down. I absolutely agree that to oppose any policy change simply because it’s Barack Obama’s is senseless, just as opposing the VSE was senseless when it was based on nothing other than the fact that it was proposed by George Bush (though many did that, by their own admission). But the Ares defenders come in (at least two flavors): those who truly believe that it’s a great idea, or at least that nothing better is like to replace it, and those for whom it is a meal ticket. I have much more respect for the former, delude though they may be. I have little for the latter, though their actions are certainly understandable. But they should not pretend that they have anything to do with advancing humanity, or this country, in space.

In any event, nothing good will come from such a backlash. It will either result in a continuation of the current disaster, with not more money to pay for it, and just a postponement of the inevitable, or continued drift and policy infighting. My fear is that the private sector will be collateral damage, if not a direct target.

[Sunday evening update]

Jeff Krukin thinks that political inertia will reign. Sadly, I think he’s right. That’s bad news for the taxpayers, but it’s overwhelmed by other bad news for the taxpayers in general on other larger fronts. And I hope that the private sector will prevail, though I fear it will not. Either way, if he’s right, the government will continue to do little to open up space, and much to prevent it, while spending billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that purport to do so.

Technology and Society

The Singularity Summit

1 Comment

I couldn’t attend (it’s in New York City) but The New Atlantis is live blogging it.

[Update an hour or so later]

More reporting from Popular Science.

[Update Sunday evening]

Phil Bowermaster says that the folks at The New Atlantis don’t seem to understand for whom the bell tolls. Or the applause indicts.

And I should note that I have significant philosophical differences with the good people at the Ethics and Environmental Policy Center, which publishes the magazine. But I say good people, because they have differences with me as well, but still feel that my space policy pieces are important to publish. And in fact I’ve no reason to think that they disagree on that issue.

As I and others have noted before, space expansion and increased human longevity are inextricably intertwined. The latter requires the former, ultimately, and the former allows the latter. Both are fundamental to extropianism.

General, Philosophy, Weird

An Existential Question

20 Comments

This is a sign I saw on the road from Las Cruces to Tucson.

Dust Storm Sign

So. What does it mean?

Is it a description of what might be? That there is a possibility of dust storms? Here, and now, but not other wheres or whens? Or is it (as we were reprimanded by our mothers or English teachers) simply an expression of permission for dust storms to exist? By whom? Our betters in Santa Fe, or Phoenix? These are state-sanctioned dust storms? And they’re not permitted elsewhere?

Or is it more of a Heisenbergian deal? That dust storms simultaneously both exist and don’t exist, and which is the case is determined only when one collapses the wave function by driving down the road to Lordsburg?

I’ll never know for sure, of course, but I can say that I never saw a dust storm on the trip.

Next up (or perhaps other things in between) — a road sign that I liked a lot more, on the American autobahn. There are a few things that the Germans got right.

Popular Culture

Deja Vu

3 Comments

I’m watching Michigan demonstrate why it’s the worst 4-0 team in the country against the Spartans. They seem to be reverting to the team that they were last year. Last week’s win against Indiana may have been their last this season.

[Post-game update — the above was posted in the third quarter]

Well, they almost pulled off another one, like Notre Dame and Indiana, but their luck ran out in overtime.

Political Commentary

Life Imitates Art

20 Comments

The most recent clown to enter that circus known as the US Senate says that Chicago didn’t get the Olympics because of Bush. Just as predicted.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s a non-nutty explanation for the Olympics decision. Don’t expect the administration to learn from the experience, though — as a commenter notes over there, the president is far too intrinsically, almost pathologically narcissistic to change.

And then, of course, there’s also this:

A sense of stunned bewilderment suffused Air Force One and the White House. Only after the defeat did many advisers ask questions about the byzantine politics of the Olympic committee. Valerie Jarrett, the president’s senior adviser and a Chicago booster who persuaded him to make the trip while at the United Nations last week, had repeatedly compared the contest to the Iowa caucuses.

The country’s in the very best of hands.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!