Electrons 2 : Atoms 0
For those who say no good can come from Microsoft (we'll avoid any embarrassing mention of the Zune here...), I would like to share with you yet another stunning example of how technology is revolutionizing the way we see the world:
Photosynth Demo
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the new frontier is NOT space, but cyberspace. Secondlife, Google Earth, and things like Photosynth are making the web the true next frontier for humanity, one where the "cost" of entry is a PC and an internet connection.
How can outerspace compare with that?
Until, and unless, we get truly Cheap, Reliable, Reusable, Access to Space (CRATS), the masses will never leave terra firma. I'm concerned that our window will close in this generation unless that point is absorbed and acted upon by those with the bucks.
posted by Shubber Ali at 3:19 PM
2 Comments:
I hope this was posted half-asleep, because I'm surprised to see you propagating the hoary Pournellian "it's now or never for space."
Whether on his grounds (the long dark Luddite/collectivist night is descending) or what seem to be yours (interest in frontiers is fixed, so more cyberspace = less outer space)... it's bogus.
I hope this was posted half-asleep, because I'm surprised to see you propagating the hoary Pournellian "it's now or never for space."
Nah, it was a typo - i meant the window will close ON this generation. In the future humanity may eventually leave terra firma assuming it hasn't wiped itself out (be it 100 or 500 years from now, who's to say? either way we'll be dead).
In the nearer term - 10-30 years from now - I have strong doubts about us going off-world because of externalities that most seem blissfully unaware of - the primary one being the US Debt & Deficit and future upcoming unfunded liabilities. Manned Space will seem a glorious extravagance when we're trying to meet Social Security and Medicare payments while maintaining expensive military presences in theaters around the world...
And if the masses have moved to cyberspace during that period (including the investement masses, as they did in the mid 90s) then I would argue, fully awake, that a criticial component of sustained space campaign has been yanked out of the machine: public demand. Hence my comment of Electrons 2: Atoms 0.
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