I'm agnostic on AI. But I don't think nearly enough people understand or want to admit the disruption it is going to cause in a relatively short amount of time.Im playing devils advocate here. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut then astrophysicist. That’s what I was majoring in for most of my time at IU until I decided to go to law school. I understand the emotional desire to explore and the wonder of the cosmos.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
You could do with some more of that childlike wonder. AI pessimist, space travel pessimist.
I heard you were in a dry cleaner the other day destroying sewing machines.
But, hey, economics isn't called the dismal science for nothin'. Or maybe it is?
https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/LevyPeartdismal.html
+1I'm agnostic on AI. But I don't think nearly enough people understand or want to admit the disruption it is going to cause in a relatively short amount of time.Im playing devils advocate here. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut then astrophysicist. That’s what I was majoring in for most of my time at IU until I decided to go to law school. I understand the emotional desire to explore and the wonder of the cosmos.@bradstevens One way to get to Mars is through the moon. The moon has water in ice at the south pole. That water can be converted to hydrogen and oxygen, meaning not nearly as much needs lifted out of our much larger gravity. This is where the space race comes in, the laws regarding space exploration are nonexistent. That means there is a certain race with China to get to that ice first. Look up the book "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" by Zach Weinersmith. He details the problems getting to Mars and how the moon solves some of them.
This time the moon isn't the final destination.
Besides, without going to the moon, Space 1999 cannot happen... :>).
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
You could do with some more of that childlike wonder. AI pessimist, space travel pessimist.
I heard you were in a dry cleaner the other day destroying sewing machines.
But, hey, economics isn't called the dismal science for nothin'. Or maybe it is?
https://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/LevyPeartdismal.html
Reagonomics to now successfully hollowed out the “middle class” insofar as the standard of living for union workers and similar wage earners.
MBA America learns and evolves from every situation: offshoring, dot.com, 2008, covid.
AI is going gut middle management and middle-white collar jobs across the board.
I sat in on a couple MBA classes at Kelley and the preponderance of students were diletante in their seriousness. Bare minimum effort, game the system, polar opposite of AI geeks and business leaders. Not driven. Those are all gone unless they happen to be smart enough to adapt.
The hit to our economic spending power will be nontrivial.
When it becomes economically advantageous, free enterprise will drive that.
BUT. . . The fact is, right now, there is no good economic justification for pouring billions or trillions into space exploration. If the Chinese want to waste their resources on that, let them. We have more pressing issues here on the home front.
Asteroid mining. It's still WAAAAAAAAY off, but eventually there is going to be a very large amount of iron, water, rare metals, and hydrogen from bodies in our solar system that nobody has a claim to.
Who in the hell took over your account? I like this new free market Ayn Rand loving Brad. Pump this sh#t straight into my veins.
When it becomes economically advantageous, free enterprise will drive that.
"The asteroid belt contains a vast, largely untappable amount of gold, with estimates for the total precious metal content in the region ranging from billions to trillions of tonnes. While precise, total amounts are unknown, individual metallic asteroids like 16 Psyche are believed to hold enough iron, nickel, and gold to be worth over $700 quintillion, or approximately 10,000 quadrillion dollars, based on current global market prices."
It will absolutely be advantageous to the first country to do it. 2 trillion now to get you one step closer is pennies on the (million) dollar.
Was listening to a podcast with I think Neil deGrasse Tyson who said all this talk of putting life on Mars isn't going to work.
He said that we'd all have cancer in a matter of years because of Mars with no real atmosphere that protects us from the rays of the sun.
There's apparently some underground caves / lava tubes on Mars that would be shielded from UV rays and one thought is to seal them off and make a habitable space.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103521003171
"You can't make someone listen to reason if they aren't willing to think"-- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
When it becomes economically advantageous, free enterprise will drive that.
"The asteroid belt contains a vast, largely untappable amount of gold, with estimates for the total precious metal content in the region ranging from billions to trillions of tonnes. While precise, total amounts are unknown, individual metallic asteroids like 16 Psyche are believed to hold enough iron, nickel, and gold to be worth over $700 quintillion, or approximately 10,000 quadrillion dollars, based on current global market prices."
It will absolutely be advantageous to the first country to do it. 2 trillion now to get you one step closer is pennies on the (million) dollar.
That would amazing for Bitcoin and crash the price of gold as all the monetary premium was stripped from it. F#ck it, I'm in. Let's go all in @bradstevens and invest 10 trillion 
@bradstevens NASA's budget is .5% of the federal budget and some of that is actually military spending going through NASA because at some point, NASA and the military overlap. A good book on that is by Neil deGrasse Tyson, "Accessory to War". He pulls no punches, astrophysics is military spending and many astrophysicists are very uncomfortable with that.
But .5% isn't much. The factor neither of us can account for, what comes from it. I cannot tell you that there will be great discoveries but I can tell you Apollo led to great discoveries. So did explorations by people like Columbus or Erickson.
Plus, it excites kids, making them more interested in science. Something we can use as a nation.
https://twitter.com/mamaswati/status/2039491647298298051?s=20
#legend
Here is what Google AI says about Artemis project:
- Total Expenditure (2012–2025): Approx. $93 billion.
- Per-Launch Cost: The production and operations for the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule are estimated at $4.1 billion per launch.
- Funding Scope: The program is primarily funded by the U.S. government.
- Development Costs: The Human Landing System requires an additional $21.3 billion over the five years leading up to 2021-2025 projections.
Damn. Think I might chase asteroids instead of hurricanes…
I'm actually headed to the White House next week to pitch this very idea for federal funding.
I even have an interactive demonstration that Trump can participate in that simulates the extraction technique I am proposing.
It's money in the bag, I tell ya.
Stupid of me to ask, but you do have a patent on that invention, right?Damn. Think I might chase asteroids instead of hurricanes…
I'm actually headed to the White House next week to pitch this very idea for federal funding.
I even have an interactive demonstration that Trump can participate in that simulates the extraction technique I am proposing.
It's money in the bag, I tell ya.
Stupid of me to ask, but you do have a patent on that invention, right?
Between you and me, I actually stole the idea from renowned scientist Dr. Alan Terrance Ari...
....but Trump's not gonna know that.
I think my favorite thing about this mission so far is the story I heard on the way home today, that one of the first things the astronauts had to do when they got to work today was call mission control for some tech support because Outlook wasn't working.
They need to switch to Starlink Before they leave earth atmosphere.I think my favorite thing about this mission so far is the story I heard on the way home today, that one of the first things the astronauts had to do when they got to work today was call mission control for some tech support because Outlook wasn't working.
Was listening to a podcast with I think Neil deGrasse Tyson who said all this talk of putting life on Mars isn't going to work.
He said that we'd all have cancer in a matter of years because of Mars with no real atmosphere that protects us from the rays of the sun.
There's apparently some underground caves / lava tubes on Mars that would be shielded from UV rays and one thought is to seal them off and make a habitable space.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103521003171
it’s not so much a lack of atmosphere, it’s the lack of a magnetic field since its core has gone cold. But that’s also why the solar wind was able to strip the atmosphere away anyway and we won’t be able to introduce a new atmosphere to Mars.
any habitation on Mars or the moon will end up being indoors only. Whether it’s using lava tubes or by sending machines to use regolith to 3D print giant structures.
then it will take a whole bunch of grow lights and, probably, practical fusion power to make the whole system go.
Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for. - Seamus Heaney, Irish poet and likely Hoosier basketball fan.
POTFB