Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The My Me Mine Asteroid Mining Fantasists

Lots of people are hyperventilating over the spectacle a handful of narcissistic celebrity tech CEOs are making of themselves about their plans to mine asteroids.

Soon enough, all of these same people will be too busy hyperventilating over the spectacle a handful of narcissistic celebrity tech CEOs are making of themselves about their plans to construct an orbital love motel or a bucky-magick space elevator to notice when the plan fizzles because neither the technology nor the will to do any of these things is there, and hence they won't be able to swing let alone sustain the capital investment to make any kind of go at it.

Indeed, no for-profit futurological folly will ever make a go at any kind of space program that doesn't amount to the fraud of calling low earth orbit amusement park rides a "space program."

Ever.

Space enthusiasts (one of whom I fervently am myself) need to seriously get their Kennedy on and become avid Big Government types and stop this endless fruitless futurological confusion of science fiction with science policy and libertopian confusion of "free market" neo-feudalism with secular techno-scientifically literate social democracies that can actually sustain public investments in space exploration and extra-terrestrial infrastructure.

PS: And now for something completely different:


3 comments:

jollyspaniard said...

I don't think we need to get our Kennedy on. Robots can do plenty of science at a fraction of the cost. They aren't as productive or photogenic as people but they can also stay deployed for years.

The Apollo program was very inspirational but didn't actually accomplish much science wise.

Dale Carrico said...

I totally get the argument about doing real cost-effective science via robots and teleoperating theater. But don't under-estimate the power of the inspirational! I'd personally like to see more humans in orbit and humans on Mars before I get so old I can't crack a smile anymore with sensawunda.

jollyspaniard said...

We spend our money on worse things.