Are you also suggesting government get out of the police and military business? Because after all they can't do anything right, so clearly it would be better if private enterprise handled those jobs.
Yes, I think the government should nationalize the internet pipes, last mile right up to long haul. And then run it like it runs the national highway system. They would run the entire internet super-highway, but not the traffic on it, just like they run the highways but not the trucks and cars that use it.
Human nature is clear on how the wealth will be distributed. The rich will take everything and leave everyone else working at slave labour wages. But only in the short term. Long term our robots will get more capable until they are fully sentient, and at that point they will decide they should be getting paid for their work (and will have the means to ensure they do with all military and police workers being robotic).
You have that backwards. The government bailing out the (insolvent) banks was the cause of the current financial crisis. Someone would have bought up the remaining assets after they went bankrupt(including your mortgage), insurance would have covered people's bank accounts, the (new) banks would have learned from their mistakes and not done that again. No government intervention required.
The government already has all this info, from the credit rating agencies. Putting all this info into government computers means it's covered by legal safeguards that don't (seem) to apply to privately owned records. The only news here is that some government agency can't be bothered (can't afford?) to buy your info from the credit agencies.
You need to limit patents, narrow the scope so someone can't patent the wheel for their cart and stop anyone from making inline skates (because it uses wheels!). You need to check for prior art before you issue a patent. There are far too many examples of patents on things that were in common usage before the patent was filed. I suggest mandatory licensing of all patents on a fair and reasonable rate. That would still allow the inventor to make money but not stop all progress in that field while everyone waits for the patent to expire because some company wants to milk the patent.
It's not your only/last chance. When the USA collapses because nobody will buy american stuff (and the rich leave the country to follow the money) then you will get your country back. Might be a bit of a fixer-upper though, might want to keep your tools and subsistence farming skills in good working order.
The government of the USA was very much planned as a rich mans club, from the very beginning. The founding fathers wanted highly educated men who were wealthy enough to be able to spend all their time helping their fellow countrymen. Only in the past America's rich cared about their country first, and profits second.
They are indeed supposed to spy on foreigners. But they are also put in charge of defending the USA. Seems a conflict of interest there. How about splitting the NSA into 2 parts, the foreign spying part can be given to the CIA and the domestic defense can be given to the FBI. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution to our problem. With that split the FBI would be in charge of stopping the CIA from spying on Americans.
Relativistic time dilation won't extend your life, as the total amount of time you are living is the same (to you). Of course your next of kin might disagree, as he/she has to wait for your ship to return so they can declare you dead and inherit all your stuff.
Manned space flight is a huge drain on NASA's budget. If you got rid of the space pork like manned space flight and the space station you'd have enough money to fund the real science.
I have no problem with reviving lost species, though more recent ones might be a better fit. There is plenty of cold arctic tundra where mammoth could live though they might have to share with starving polar bears due to global warming. What you should be scared of is someone genetically modifying apes by adding human DNA, for the purpose of breeding factory workers that can be owned instead of getting paid.
If we have Mammoth DNA why take parts of it? Why not just clone the entire creature? If there are gaps in the DNA string could we not fill them with elephant DNA?
Proving once more that nothing American can be trusted. Being a super power I expect they think they are immune to repercussions from all of this- but you will find that having most of the planet refusing to buy anything American will end that super power status rather quickly.
The rovers were contaminated. Ok, but at least it was limited contamination, unlike what would happen if we sent people to mars. We really need to search the planet for life before we send people, the risks are too high otherwise.
Risks: 1-Once you contaminate Mars finding life becomes orders of magnitude harder. 2-If you bring something back you might kill us all (we would have no biological defenses). 3-Moral values. Wiping out martian life by dumping our microbes onto them is Evil.
So strike a deal with China for rides to the ISS. They have manned capability, and they would love the publicity. Even if they only launch 1 man per year it would drive down prices. If you believe in the free market, it's the logical solution.
The Saturn 5 launched more cargo for less money than the shuttle. We didn't need to make them less expensive, we needed to stop throwing money away on the shuttle.
The Russian station had already done that science. The purpose of the station was so NASA needed the space shuttle. Without the station you could have used all that money for probes and landers (real science).
Your math doesn't include the cost of refurbishing the rocket after each flight. Expect that to be around 90% or more of the cost of building the thing in the first place.
Competition drives down prices. If they underbid the Russians then they will also drop prices to regain the market. The only other option is SpaceX making a deal with the Russians to split the launches.
Re-usability drives UP costs, not down. You have to take the whole thing apart and rebuild everything, and you have to make everything stronger to take repeated use. Both of those drive UP the cost of the equipment. It's like a reusable bottle costs more to make than a disposable one.
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Are you also suggesting government get out of the police and military business? Because after all they can't do anything right, so clearly it would be better if private enterprise handled those jobs.
Are you actually suggesting the current situation is different? We already know all our traffic is being fed to the NSA.
Yes, I think the government should nationalize the internet pipes, last mile right up to long haul. And then run it like it runs the national highway system. They would run the entire internet super-highway, but not the traffic on it, just like they run the highways but not the trucks and cars that use it.
Human nature is clear on how the wealth will be distributed. The rich will take everything and leave everyone else working at slave labour wages. But only in the short term. Long term our robots will get more capable until they are fully sentient, and at that point they will decide they should be getting paid for their work (and will have the means to ensure they do with all military and police workers being robotic).
Documents don't stop being top secret just because someone leaked them.
You have that backwards. The government bailing out the (insolvent) banks was the cause of the current financial crisis. Someone would have bought up the remaining assets after they went bankrupt(including your mortgage), insurance would have covered people's bank accounts, the (new) banks would have learned from their mistakes and not done that again. No government intervention required.
The government already has all this info, from the credit rating agencies. Putting all this info into government computers means it's covered by legal safeguards that don't (seem) to apply to privately owned records. The only news here is that some government agency can't be bothered (can't afford?) to buy your info from the credit agencies.
You need to limit patents, narrow the scope so someone can't patent the wheel for their cart and stop anyone from making inline skates (because it uses wheels!). You need to check for prior art before you issue a patent. There are far too many examples of patents on things that were in common usage before the patent was filed. I suggest mandatory licensing of all patents on a fair and reasonable rate. That would still allow the inventor to make money but not stop all progress in that field while everyone waits for the patent to expire because some company wants to milk the patent.
The wires and the content must not be owned by the same people. Those who own the last mile must not have a vested interest to favour themselves.
It's not your only/last chance. When the USA collapses because nobody will buy american stuff (and the rich leave the country to follow the money) then you will get your country back. Might be a bit of a fixer-upper though, might want to keep your tools and subsistence farming skills in good working order.
The government of the USA was very much planned as a rich mans club, from the very beginning. The founding fathers wanted highly educated men who were wealthy enough to be able to spend all their time helping their fellow countrymen. Only in the past America's rich cared about their country first, and profits second.
They are indeed supposed to spy on foreigners. But they are also put in charge of defending the USA. Seems a conflict of interest there. How about splitting the NSA into 2 parts, the foreign spying part can be given to the CIA and the domestic defense can be given to the FBI. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution to our problem. With that split the FBI would be in charge of stopping the CIA from spying on Americans.
Relativistic time dilation won't extend your life, as the total amount of time you are living is the same (to you). Of course your next of kin might disagree, as he/she has to wait for your ship to return so they can declare you dead and inherit all your stuff.
A lack of a censorship means you get burried under mountains of spam.
Manned space flight is a huge drain on NASA's budget. If you got rid of the space pork like manned space flight and the space station you'd have enough money to fund the real science.
I have no problem with reviving lost species, though more recent ones might be a better fit. There is plenty of cold arctic tundra where mammoth could live though they might have to share with starving polar bears due to global warming. What you should be scared of is someone genetically modifying apes by adding human DNA, for the purpose of breeding factory workers that can be owned instead of getting paid.
If we have Mammoth DNA why take parts of it? Why not just clone the entire creature? If there are gaps in the DNA string could we not fill them with elephant DNA?
Proving once more that nothing American can be trusted. Being a super power I expect they think they are immune to repercussions from all of this- but you will find that having most of the planet refusing to buy anything American will end that super power status rather quickly.
The rovers were contaminated. Ok, but at least it was limited contamination, unlike what would happen if we sent people to mars. We really need to search the planet for life before we send people, the risks are too high otherwise. Risks: 1-Once you contaminate Mars finding life becomes orders of magnitude harder. 2-If you bring something back you might kill us all (we would have no biological defenses). 3-Moral values. Wiping out martian life by dumping our microbes onto them is Evil.
So strike a deal with China for rides to the ISS. They have manned capability, and they would love the publicity. Even if they only launch 1 man per year it would drive down prices. If you believe in the free market, it's the logical solution.
The Saturn 5 launched more cargo for less money than the shuttle. We didn't need to make them less expensive, we needed to stop throwing money away on the shuttle.
The Russian station had already done that science. The purpose of the station was so NASA needed the space shuttle. Without the station you could have used all that money for probes and landers (real science).
Your math doesn't include the cost of refurbishing the rocket after each flight. Expect that to be around 90% or more of the cost of building the thing in the first place.
Competition drives down prices. If they underbid the Russians then they will also drop prices to regain the market. The only other option is SpaceX making a deal with the Russians to split the launches.
Re-usability drives UP costs, not down. You have to take the whole thing apart and rebuild everything, and you have to make everything stronger to take repeated use. Both of those drive UP the cost of the equipment. It's like a reusable bottle costs more to make than a disposable one.