I'm not sure why you focus on HBO and cellular telephone technology in your post. For one thing, HBO existed as a cable TV station long before satellite television existed, and cell phones use terrestrial signal transmission technology, not satellites. Secondly, satellite technology goes far beyond personal convenience and entertainment. In my business I use global-positioning data, mapping and satellite imagery for major civil engineering projects. And my clients use this technology for things like crop yield analysis, measuring forest growth over time, and tracking fleets of vehicles all over North America.
I'm not going to sit here and say that YOU are "a case study in what's wrong," but if you think satellite technology is all about convenience and entertainment than I'm going to suggest that maybe you don't know enough about the subject to weigh in on it here.
We are forever locked in today because we no longer have the ability to picture tomorrow.
What kind of gibberish is this? It sounds like something you'd find in a political speech by a candidate with an IQ of around 90. I don't know about you, but I "picture tomorrow" all the time. And the irony is that what really makes it most difficult to "picture tomorrow" is that on a personal level, we have already solved almost every problem that faced the human race up until the last 50-100 years. That's a nice problem to have, isn't it?
I worked on implementing GPS. If you look at the technology people are interested in on a daily basis, it is all about satisfying themselves right now. You look at satellites and think it is the pinnacle of space technology because it affects your world today. You reject anything in space because it doesn't relate to your job today.
If you were making decisions in 1960 you would have rejected satellites because you wouldn't be able to see what possible connection it would have with your daily life.
The difference between you and the decision makers in 1960 is that they could envision some of the benefits. You can see only costs.
You snort at the moon landing because that is all you can see, one isolated event in history. People who made it happen could see a lot farther until Richard Nixon came along and sought to please the navel-gazers.
I am not saying we should give NASA a blank check -- they have the same malady as the rest of society. Healthy, growing societies want to know what is over the horizon. Stagnant, dying societies only concern themselves with the same problems humanity has always had.
And the irony is that what really makes it most difficult to "picture tomorrow" is that on a personal level, we have already solved almost every problem that faced the human race up until the last 50-100 years.
What problems are those? Our society is currently trying to solve the problems of greed, selfishness, and powerlust and offering political solutions (Marxism) that only make those problems worse.
We have greatly reduced the size of some problems (for example, infectious diseases) but not too many have been absolutely solved. What kind of gibberish is this? It sounds like something you'd find in a political speech by a candidate with an IQ of around 90. I don't know about you, but I "picture tomorrow" all the time.
Nice personal attack. What I mean is that people can't see any benefit to something like nuclear power. They can only see the costs. They flee in fear at the word "radiation" with no understanding of what it is. Nuclear is a transformational technology, but has never been allowed to reach its full potential. The technology has nearly been abandoned, and has been stagnant for the last forty years because society won't accept it. No serious basic research is being done because it is moot at this point.
“And the irony is that what really makes it most difficult to “picture tomorrow” is that on a personal level, we have already solved almost every problem that faced the human race up until the last 50-100 years. That’s a nice problem to have, isn’t it?”
If you say so, then it must be.
Obviously, tomorrow will bring no new problems that will impact the human race and life on Earth. So why work on such things now, when we can safely and comfortably wait until the problem is apparent? It would take just a moment to figure out what to do about an 50 mile-wide asteroid coming from behind the sun on a collision course the Earth! Child’s play! Or Earth getting blasted by multiple humongous solar flares which will fry every electronic gadget on Earth or in orbit - too easy. We could go on here, but what’s the point, since we’ve got it covered?
Sheesh - let tomorrow take care of itself. We can do better staring at our personal and collective navels while using our tax dollars to feed the homeless, house and care for every person who decides to cross the Mexican border, since we have solved every problem facing the human race already.
Moreover, when you look closely at all the stuff that came out of the Apollo program, they were just so obvious anyway, and people would have come up with the same solutions without spending all those precious tax dollars to bring back worthless hunks of Lunar rock.
So yes, you are right - as usual - there is absolutely no need to explore the solar system using humans - we are too fragile and require too many resources. We can better use people with vision to look into the important things we may encounter while doing important social work or working in other important mundane fields.
Inspiration, hope - who needs them? We are a mature society now and no longer need to explore or pioneer anything - especially not using humans in space - some of them might die! The terrible headlines, the endless talking heads, the embarrassment, the humiliation, the distraction from the really important events of the day - can you image?
Let’s agree to keep our personal and collective heads down and above all: Never Look Up!