space&planets

[schneefink]

Today when I wanted to be excited about the successful Mars landing (!) I encountered the opinion "we shouldn't fund NASA/space programs because there are so many things on Earth where the money would be more useful," and (apart from how many scientific advances are thanks to space programs, and how many other things could be defunded first, like the military, etc.) it occurred to me that there are people who look up at the night sky and just don't care what's out there. Or at least not enough to spend resources on finding out. (The countries with space programs don't really have resource problems, they have resource allocation problems.) And part of me gets it - there are so many problems on Earth that look more immediate and pressing and so on - but on the other hand I also can't really imagine a reality in which humans don't reach for the stars. As a group, we're curious, that's what we do. It would be boring otherwise.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

I always suspect that the people who say this have never encountered science fiction. How very sad for them.

There is of course a legitimate question of how to allocate scarce resources, but it's as you say: if one looks at NASA's budget compared to that of our military complex, the whole argument goes down in flames.

[schneefink]

We watch SF together! That's why it was such a surprise.

Don't forget, NASA is going to need more money to help with the Space Force ;)

[duskpeterson]

Maybe they're like the Star Trek fan that my apprentice knows, who said, "Why do we need to spend all that money to explore space? The Enterprise has already done that."

[schneefink]

...I don't even know what to say to that ^^

[isis]

I forget, did your dad also work at GSFC?

(schneefink, Dusk and I actually grew up on the same street! We kind of lost touch after...I want to say elementary school, really, but it was amusing to discover each other again in these spaces!)

[duskpeterson]

Whoa, hello! I'd forgotten your nick!

My father was a lit prof, but my ex worked at Hubble. He scheduled this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation

[schneefink]

Neat! Kinda impressive that you recognized each other too - I'm pretty sure I could be talking to several childhood friends in fandom and never realize ^^

[isis]

Both our pseuds contain clues to our real names (though mine is far more obscure), and some years ago when I saw her biography on her web page I realized I knew her!

I've actually figured out a few other people I knew from e.g. college (and vice versa) due to references to mutual friends or activities. (One person mentioned a mutual friend and we figured out that though we didn't know each other, she was a close friend of one of my brothers in college.) It's always a little startling to realize, especially when I feel that my current RL friends (and most of my past ones) would be "say WHAT?" about fandom.

[schneefink]

Heh. Several of my RL friends know that I'm "in fandom," though I think most of them don't have a clear idea what that means. Some of them are enthusiastic fans of certain TV shows and/or read fanfic occasionally, but it's not the same (though I find it difficult to explain how exactly.)