Got a few minutes?

Comment

Comment by W. Dan Chance on April 10, 2010 at 5:38pm

Kevin, As active as you are, I'd never have suspected that you are on dial-up! You are correct that making dreams, like those in this presentation, come true requires more skill as a politician (we must all be politicians) than as a technician. I've found that people respond more openly and favorably to questions than they do to statements of fact (even if clearly true).

Maybe we could start the ball rolling toward a brighter future by asking questions like: 1) do you generally favor a future with more choices or fewer, 2) with cleaner air and water or with more polluted air and water, 3) with more personal freedom or with less. We could follow with questions like: to achieve our goals will we need more capital or less. How can we make it worthwhile for those with capital to invest in a world that hopes to replace the technologies that created their wealth since they seem blind to the fact that their technologies are based on finite resources that 1) are rapidly dwindling into extinction (questionable) and 2) do irreparable harm to the biosphere on which we all depend for our very existence?

Comment by W. Dan Chance on April 10, 2010 at 5:16pm

Jim, wealth may not be yours but access to wealth like you will have in presenting at the Space 2010 conf is worth a lot. Remember the plight of those who find themselves at the bottom for one reason or another. Some "deserve" to be there but if we meditated on it we know that we could have found ourselves in that group all too easily. My point is 1) you have access 2) people with access and ideas have power to move things 3) if you are going to move things, you can help or hurt people with NO power. So try to help people who don't deserve your help 'cause we all have choices that can make this a saner, more prosperous world or a greedier more dangerous one. I trust that you are capable of making the more ethical choice.

Comment by Kevin Espeseth on April 10, 2010 at 1:35pm

Just a note here, I'm on 'dial up', so it gonna take more than just a few minutes...

Like MOST of the population... to keep in mind the real time frame to these kind of objectives.

Also, our 'complications' to this is political, not teck. The question remains, can the teck (and other like minds) overpower the "got mine, an' I don't wanna" mentality before depopulation/culling becomes the new 'in color for the Emerald City'.

Comment by Jim Martin on April 9, 2010 at 1:20pm

Several items shown indicate an increase in artistic value over functional value. Any civilization that can afford the art must have some wealth. I just hope control of the wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few at the expense of many.

The clip shows space elevators, space solar power satellites, and reusable launch vehicles. These are interests of mine and the subjects of a paper I plan to present at the Space 2010 conference. We may be able to make them a reality using a vertical flight approach.

Comment by W. Dan Chance on April 9, 2010 at 10:53am

Curto - agreed. Hartman - agreed.

Comment by Dr. Paul A. Curto on April 9, 2010 at 9:43am

Much of this already exists, like the X43 and some of the NASA clips, and since the rest has been imagined, can exist someday if wanted, needed, or can fit into a niche. The frightening aspect is ten billion humans on the planet when the oil runs out. That can't be so pretty.

Comment by H. RONALD (RON) HARTMAN on April 8, 2010 at 11:51pm

Probably at least 30% is already achieved but being forestalled from production - beancounters want orderly planned obsolescence to get the last nickel of depreciation before scrapping worn-out methods and systems - only the threat of annihilation of a system or a culture puts a cattle-prod to the abandoning of the status-quo.