Slashdot Mirror
The Social Difficulty of Saving Earth From an Asteroid
mantis2009 writes "When it comes to stopping a cataclysmic Earth vs. asteroid event, social science and international political leaders have more difficult questions yet unanswered than physicists do, according to report delivered at this week's American Geophysical Union meeting. Wired has a discussion of an analysis authored by former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who worries that the international community is nowhere near ready to begin the complex and inevitably controversial task of deflecting an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Among the questions to be answered is whether to modify the Partial Test Ban Treaty to allow nuclear weapons in outer space. Another possibility to avoid the destruction of civilization would require the international community to choose an area on the globe where an asteroid might be 'aimed.' Who would decide which nations get placed in the asteroid's crosshairs?"
I do.
Next question?
Check out my novel.
silly.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Our politics have been almost uniquely stupid recently. We've been meddling with other nations for a very long time, half our population is willfully ignorant to the point of rejecting evolution, we somehow think improving our healthcare system is immoral, one of our political parties is enthusiastically pro-torture, anti-science, and anti-reality while the other is hardly cohesive enough to be called a party, we think we're the best in the world while we do our very best to undermine the basics of civilization in the name of lassiez-faire. Just aim it for the middle of the bible belt in the US. The craziest of our crazies will even applaud it, because they're looking forward to punishment coming to the "sinful" nation.
At least it would be entertaining watching some yahoos talk about how it's immoral to use state power to deflect it, because... OH! Once there's a need, there's a market, and the market creates the invisible hand! And the invisible hand will swat that asteroid out of the sky. Yeah, it's the new religion, and watching them watch it smoosh them would at least give us a laugh while the impact slowly smothers the rest of us.
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
I'd aim the asteroid at america as well; it's a hollow, sham of a country. Only, of course, after I am safely on aussie territory xD.