ANS -- Sara on Space and Technology

Here's an opinion piece, and some replies.  It's about space and technology.  What do you think?

--Kim

Sara Robinson

1tSpo0onhatsoredur  · 

The progressive whining about the space launches is getting under my skin, for a couple of reasons.

First: I'm old enough to remember when the original Apollo missions were being criticized by the same lefties of that age -- why aren't we spending this money ending poverty on earth? But you don't hear that any more, because our investment in the space race ultimately yielded revolutions in materials (teflon, mylar, velcro, and much more), computing (the semiconductor and integrated circuits that now drive everything in our modern world), and the Internet (DARPA existed, in part, to support NASA) that transformed our entire economy. Nobody serious wishes those things hadn't happened. And the space race made them happen.

Second: these are not vanity launches. These are corporate bids to build the critical piece of infrastructure that will enable us to keep using our electronic gear for the rest of this century. Earth can't supply the quantities of rare earth metals that we're consuming now -- and certainly not without horrible ecological damage. Recycling research is afoot, and will help; but ultimately, we're going to need more of this stuff.

Bezos and Branson understand that controlling the transportation links that bring people and material between Earth and the asteroids that will be our future supply of this stuff could be a huge source of future profits. They may move into actual mining, too; but it's always true in mining booms that the people who run the roads and stores are the ones making the real money.

These experiments are laying the supply trails for that boom. This is why they're working out reuseable rockets. They plan to go back -- over and over and over.

Musk is already filling up near-earth space with the Starlink comms satellites that will bring broadband to every corner of the planet. (Government discussions of "bringing broadband to rural areas" are risible, and the people having them are out of touch. Starlink will have this done and working by the end of next year, without government funding. It's a done deal.) The full network will include many tens of thousands of satellites, and they'll each need to be swapped out or serviced every few years. His interest in space all about launching and servicing the Starlink array.

The stubborn unwillingness to look at what's really going on here, instead of recycling old liberal harrumphs that were ridiculous when they were first trotted out nearly 60 years ago and are even more so now, exasperates me. I was a progressive because it was the movement that embraced the future and drove change. Well, gang -- here's the future, and those are the people who are creating it; and all you're doing is throwing rocks at them. The party of the future has become the party of Luddites, and I'm not going there with you.

Yeah, I wish there was still a NASA that was doing this for public gain instead of private profit. But that's not a reason to gritch. NASA did its job: it brought us to this moment, where the private sector could take over. And now it is.

Standing athwart history yelling "STOP" is the conservatives' gig. It shouldn't be ours.

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• Deborah Emin

  I wish those things didn't happen. For one thing those happy thoughts about Teflon, as one example, created forever chemicals that polluted our waters and caused severe illnesses is humans and non-humans alike. The happy faces regarding unbridled technology has caused massive harm to the planet.

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  • Sara Robinson

    Oh, just STOP. Everything on this planet is "problematic." Everything has both the good and the bad. The ceaseless progressive habit of pointing out EVERY BAD THING is exhausting, and I'm over it.

    For some of us, the only thing our brains even register anymore is the vast catalog of everything that's wrong with everything. We can all cite it by rote (honestly, did you really think I didn't know this about Teflon?). Picking on one word out of that long post is not a worthwhile contribution to the discussion.

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  • Deborah Emin

    That was just one example. I am not in love with technology. I wasn't ever in love with technology. It's exhausting to think and feel that this planet has become an ATM for technology. Well, the bank may be emptied out soon. The floods, droughts and fires, the horrific devastation is increasing while lovers of technology fiddle away. It is the war economy that makes these "marvels" come about. I think we need to keep pointing that out because that is what supports the technological "progress." (And no, I don't believe I will change your mind. But these things must be said.)

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