Writer's Block: See you on the dark side

[athelind]

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If you won a free trip to the moon, would you go? Why or why not?

Yes.

Why?

So many reasons, but let's go with the one in today's xkcd:

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space--each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

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Comments

[silussa.livejournal.com]

*blink*

Would anyone turn DOWN a trip to the moon?

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Probably not anyone reading MY LJ.

Though these Writer's Blocks reach a larger audience.

We'll see.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

"Why?" isn't even a question that makes sense to me, in that context.

[paka.livejournal.com]

the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space

Except I don't think staying here is a sensible economic decision. If you go by the most rapacious free market thought out there, there's always a need for more resources and more space to develop. If you go by less rapacious free market thinking, this chunk of exploration stimulated the development of so much technology. Heck, if it weren't for the space program, this place might have been a ginormous agricultural region instead of a corporate masturbatory fantasy. I really feel our decision to abandon the space program falls into the category of "for all we scream about how capitalism is better than socialism, Americans are crummy at actual capitalism."

Also, I keep seeing America's push into space fueled by economic prosperity, followed by an intentional decision to abandon the attempt, as being pretty much identical to the Ming dynasty's initial push to explore Asia and Africa fueled by their economic prosperity, then their intentional decision to abandon the attempt. That decision successfully turned China into a backwater and led to "the carving up of the melon" eventually. This can't be a good move on our part.

[yasha-taur.livejournal.com]

Just as a note, I was looking at the chart and noticed that there were 3 'steps down' , meaning three deaths. I had only heard of two, and so I looked up the list of MoonWalkers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apollo_astronauts_who_walked_on_the_Moon

Somehow, Conrads death had slipped by without me hearing about it. Just goes to show you, even a space nut like myself doesn't know everything....

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[iridium-wolf.livejournal.com]

Hell yes I'd go, in a heart beat.

My father was a geologist, if for no other reason than to go for him. His disappointment was profound that by the time I graduated high school, there was no permanent installation on the Moon.