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Conquering the LaGrange Points?
3laws_safe writes "For decades, people have dreamed about building colonies at the five LaGrange points, intersections in space where gravitational and centrifugal forces balance out to provide orbital stability. But now, the official magazine of the U.S. Space Command advocates seizing control of the LaGrange points before other nations do it. From the article: 'We face the need to control the chokepoints of the solar system.' Arthur C. Clarke, who depicted a LaGrange colony in his classic 1961 novel A Fall of Moondust, is not very happy about this. He argues we should not 'export national rivalries beyond the atmosphere.' Is he right? Or should we prepare for the fact that such rivalries are inevitable, even in space?"
welcome our new LaGrange overlords :P
Hopefully FP
Rumor spreadin' around...
-Xen
- armoring vehicles in Iraq
- providing for the future medical care of the soldiers currently being maimed in Iraq
- providing real security against terrorist attacks (e.g. inspecting container ships)
- providing all of the reconstruction aid we'd originally said we'd provide in Afghanistan and Iraq and that the military (the real ones, not the civilians like Cheney, Bush and Wolfowitz who pretend to be) said was absolutely essential for stabilization
So, we can't even secure the London Underground and these people are worried about the Chinese at the L5 points. Give me a break..."All successful systems accumulate parasites" -- Hal Hixon
Gundam had Nazis? Shit, I need to watch more of that...
Or should we prepare for the fact that such rivalries are inevitable, even in space?
That's much like saying: "War is inevitable, so we should prepare for war, by pre-emptively attacking anyone strong enough to pose a threat to us".
A few centuries ago, it could have been argued that: "Democracy will inevitably crumble into feudalism, so a civic minded citizens should support the King, so that we don't descend into total anarchy. We need to be prepared for the fact that democracy just doesn't work".
If you give up on the basic ideals of equality and basic freedom for all, then why even bother at all? What's worth giving up on your fellow man for? Money? Everyone knows that money doesn't make you happy; it just stops certain things from making you miserable. Life works better when we all take care of each other; and most people are smart enough to realize it.
We didn't overcome a thousand years of wretched, miserable life under a brutal theocracy in the European feudal system only to fall into barbarism now. We'll learn to overcome the greed, violence, and religious dogma who's after-echos still plague our society, and grow into an honest, principled society despite ourselves.
We've been doing better and better over the centuries: near universal education exists in most countries. Health care in this century is so amazing that we have to keep changing the definition of "legally dead", because we keep being able bring "dead" people back to life!
Democracies flourish in many parts of the world, and religious theocracies are slowly giving way to rational enlightment. Most of our societies have embraced the notion of social equality, both under the law, and within social custom as well.
Slavery is so rare today it's now considered a abberation; medieval torture devices and trial by combat are all just a distant, ugly dream; and we've reached unprecedented heights in maintaining the rights of people of all races, colours, and creeds.
We're making great progress. There's no reason to assume we should give up now.
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AC
Space travel is very costly for a reason.Evolution will not allow creatures like humans to live outside earth.Untill equality is achieved all humans must stay on earth.THAT IS ALL.