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Interviews: Ask Engineer and L5 Society Cofounder Keith Henson a Question

Posted by samzenpus on from the go-ahead-and-ask dept.

Keith Henson is an electrical engineer and writer on space engineering, space law, cryonics, and evolutionary psychology. He co-founded the L5 society in 1975, which sought to promote space colonization. In addition to being an outspoken critic and target of the Church of Scientology, Keith has recently been working on the design of an orbiting power satellite (video here). The proposed satellite would collect solar energy, send it to Earth via microwaves, and Henson has a plan on how to launch it cheaply. Keith has agreed to give us some of his time and answer any questions you might have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

1 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Big coal also wanted him dead by Grishnakh · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Don't be ridiculous; Republicans don't "hate the Earth" or "hate us all".

    Basically, there's two kinds of Republicans: religious kooks (like Santorum or Huckabee) and libertarians/ultra-capitalists. Some are a bit of a mixture of the two, but usually they're in one or the other camp, though even the libertarian ones will pander to the religious kooks to get votes (like Rand Paul).

    The libertarian ones are basically sociopathic (along with their buddies in polluting industries), and simply don't care about the Earth or pollution. They want money, the more the better, and they don't want anything standing in their way. It's not that they hate the Earth, they simple don't give a shit. The effects aren't going to be that bad before they're dead, so why would they care?

    The religious kooks don't hate the Earth at all, they just have an insane belief that humans can't possibly do anything to cause real harm to "God's creation", and that God will prevent anything bad from happening to them as long as they're faithful. So maybe some of them are worried about climate change and such, but instead of blaming themselves and their stupid, gas-guzzling SUVs and 2-cycle lawn equipment, they blame gay people.

    At least the liberatarian/capitalist ones are rational, even if it is entirely selfish.