The Wrong Stuff

b00le writes "The New York Review of Books has a trenchant piece, The Wrong Stuff by the great Steven Weinberg, arguing against the utility of manned spaceflight, which he feels has a largely political or sentimental function. He adds: '...I have taken the President's space initiative seriously. That may be a mistake.' Even so, his argument is detailed and rich in facts, particularly the nasty economic kind."

Comments

Re:He's right

[Anonymous Coward]

Bush just wants to create a legacy.

oh he has done that, ask 500+ dead US soldiers families what kind of legacy Bush has left for them

Re:He's right

[sketerpot]

While 500 soldiers dead is relatively minor, and while they did volunteer, looking at it from a different viewpoint: it's 500 people. Dead. How "minor" is that?

Re:He's right

[kin_korn_karn]

I agree with you on shutting up about 'sympathizing'. When there's a soccer mom sticker right about the Support Our Troops sticker on the van, you know it's total bullshit. What they're doing is a way of life, and they don't need that kind of 'support' from us.

But in Iraq, they are serving the ideals of Halliburton and the Bush family, not the Constitution. There's no real honor in that, other than the fringe benefit of killing a few Al Qaeda members in the process.

Let's Not Feed the Third World

[Simonetta]

The big problem with using advanced first-world technology is that when the people get a little food in them they fuck like crazy and create large population growths. The new populations can't get jobs because the third-world economy can't grow to meet the needs of all of these new people.

Then they become cannon fodder-suicide plums to manipulative religious fanatics who send them off to kill and be killed for the benefit of the religious leaders. And the people whom they get sent to kill are often the same people who were most concerned about making the world a better place for their parents in the first place...Peace Core Syndrome.

I realize that I sound like a monster, but... Seriously, if you want to help these people, Norplant them, then feed them.

Re:Spaceflight as a religious endeavour

[Aardpig]

The Sun has been getting gradually hotter through its lifetime and this heating will result in a range of effects that mean that in around a billion years our planet will be dry and uninhabitable.

No, the Sun has been getting cooler during its main-sequence evolution; however, it has been getting more luminous. It is the increase in luminosity which will cause the effects you describe.