Gloom and doom

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

This is an interesting discussion.

Regardless of "conspiracy theories" or "Orwellian State", I have no idea what the truth is but the following video really hit a chord with me:

Of course Raydeus likes this post. NdGT is essentially giving LeLouch's last speech.

While I agree with the general social disease he refers to of people yearning for the past or clinging to the present instead of reaching for the future, and space exploration is obviously important for the long-term future of the race life, I think there's a lot of tomorrows left here on earth, and there are lots of other places we could spend money to advance into the future that might be more efficient and reap better short-term gains. I also disagree strongly that a good way to go about developing space travel is to steal money out of everyone's paychecks via taxes and dump all of those eggs into one bloated and inefficient government-controlled basket. That's wrongheaded on many levels.

---------- Post added at 12:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:40 PM ----------

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a badass, btw, and I'm not disputing that. I agree with almost everything he says. But as an astrophysicist I think he has an overwhelming bias towards the sky, which is understandable but needs to be accounted for.

[Armando]

re: Gloom and doom

I think there's a lot of tomorrows left here on earth, and there are lots of other places we could spend money to advance into the future that might be more efficient and reap better short-term gains. I also disagree strongly that a good way to go about developing space travel is to steal money out of everyone's paychecks via taxes and dump all of those eggs into one bloated and inefficient government-controlled basket. That's wrongheaded on many levels.

Wasn't his point that it's in our best interests to change way tax dollars are allocated, rather than taking more money?

Either way while I'm not against scientific progress and space exploration, I think we really need to rethink what we're doing on Earth before we can even think about colonizing a different rock. We're only just barely starting to be responsible with the environment; if we were to jump ship to a new planet or space colony as we are right now, I bet we'd just recklessly exploit our new environment just on the premise that we suddenly have such a huge new source of resources.

[Melody]

re: Gloom and doom

Our Government.

Notice subject A - Chris was very hostile
Notice subject B - Quagmire questioned him
Notice Subject A - Chris instantly beating him down relentlessly


Now let us do that with our government.

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

Wasn't his point that it's in our best interests to change way tax dollars are allocated, rather than taking more money?

I don't think it's much better to be asking for a bigger slice of already stolen pie than to ask for additional pie to be stolen.

To the original topic:

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

re: Gloom and doom

What, pray tell, "better things" do we have to invest tax dollars in?

Don't say education or improving government, either, each time we funnel more money into that things get worse. At least the space program was inspirational.

We certainly don't want the government investing on other things that inspire us, like how technology is evolving at the pace it is now - that's actually best off being driven by corporations and its pushing tech at such a pace its getting harder for corruption to hide itself anywhere. Its pushing it to a point where things are going to have to change fundamentally in government and business, forcing transparency instead of just asking for it.

We can already see them scrambling to control something that really can't be controlled and that scares them. I like that the internet, social networking, smartphones and tablets are connecting people even if it does breed an extra bit of social stupidity. It is good we can now have quick, accessible evidence against a lie right as its being uttered.

But we can do more and we need to understand the things that lie beyond the ozone layer. Telling ourselves we have more important things to do is just procrastinating and holding humanity back.

Why is it I'm told "we can't wait" for things on someone's agenda, but then told we can wait on the things that inspire people and capture the imagination of children? I was enraptured by each shuttle launch, well, except for the Challenger explosion in second grade. Traumatized classroom for a bit there. I switched by aspirations from astronaut to mailman after that.

And then postal workers started shooting up their worksplace.

Anyway, I think its something that shouldn't me ignored. If space exploration has to be privatized and done by corporations, at least it will be getting the job done where the government has failed and by "failed" i also mean whatever those "more important things" are to them.

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

When I said we had better places to spend money, I wasn't talking about allocation of federal funds. I thought my support for a more limited role of government was pretty clear, but I guess not. I meant that as a species there are probably wiser things we could voluntarily spend our time and energy on first.

I think that, for example, Dr Ballard makes a compelling argument for deep sea exploration (granted, he IS talking about federal money):

Basically, my line of thought is similar to Armando's. There is a lot more we can learn right here on earth, and we should probably get those things right before we move on. The frontiers of materials science, biotech, energy production, cybernetics, communication technology and artificial intelligence, to name a few, are just as exciting and inspiring to me as our future in space. It's not as though we as a people have stopped dreaming, we just aren't all as enthusiastic about the same dream as Dr Tyson.

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For future reference, I'm a Ron Paul libertarian. I probably make this more evident on my facebook feed than here.

[Raydeus]

re: Gloom and doom

Whoah, really?

[Feba]

re: Gloom and doom

Whoah, really?

I know, it took me a couple months to realize Taskmage's facebook page wasn't satire.

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

From what I've seen and heard, this Alex Jones guy is a clown. I watched about half the interview until he drove me nuts by saying something based on fact, then following it up with some crazy whack-job speculation that only Glenn Beck would believe, thus discrediting the real facts people should genuinely be concerned about. As if the executive branch taking the power to execute US citizens without so much as a public accusation or presentation of evidence was somehow just not a good enough story by itself. But yes, some of what that guy said is basically, demonstrably true and it is pretty freaking nuts.

[Raydeus]

re: Gloom and doom

Jones wasn't important to begin with, the important thing here is in the first minute or so of the video.


This is NDAA stuff with NDAA timing in it's signing. It's like having freaking ninja assassins trying to sneak up on your blind side and you being bothered because some annoying guy is trying to tell you you are about to get killed.

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

You thought it was the first minute that was important? That's like having a freaking ninja assassin slitting your throat and being bothered because his ninja buddy is raiding your fridge.

[Aeni]

re: Gloom and doom

Between this, the recent trespass bill, and our insatiable war machine now hungrily eying Iran, I feel like I'm watching the prequel to 1984. Seriously.

What are you, a troll? This has been happening since the formation of the FBI. You seem to have forgotten about Bush, Patriot Act, Ashcroft, Guantanomo Bay and all the rest.

[Taskmage]

re: Gloom and doom

So what, I should stop talking about it? What's your point?

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Do I need to mention all the old things every time there's some new thing or you'll assume I'm conveniently forgetting them?

[Etra]

re: Gloom and doom

So what, I should stop talking about it? What's your point?

---------- Post added at 05:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:33 PM ----------

Do I need to mention all the old things every time there's some new thing or you'll assume I'm conveniently forgetting them?

"Conveniently forgetting" or BRAIN WASHED BY THE GOVERNMENT!?

[Taskmage]

It's another government abuse thread. No wait, it's a technological marvel thread.

It's both! In a convergence of things I find interesting enough to post threads about: We Just Built Skynet in the Desert, Now What? | Endless Innovation | Big Think

The articles relates it to Skynet. I think it's more like Project 2501. It's a massive data crunching complex for the appalling amount of information that's collected about us. Frightening and intriguing at the same time. Imagine the insights on human behavior this thing will yield, then imagine how that knowledge might be misused. Less 1984 and more Revolt in 2100.