Posted on 07/21/2013 4:25:30 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell
Alas — mark well what I do say — I was reminded of how many, many years it’s been since I studied Byron, as it was “The Maid of Amsterdam” sea shanty and not Lord Byron that came to mind when I read the line.
I think you will appreciate this essay.
Now we make movies about the hero destroying things like that.
The Norwegian State, if I’m not mistaken, has him on its blacklist of dangerous racists. Along with Spencer and Horowitz.
We could have gone to the stars, but we took another road instead. Maybe we can still turn back to a time when we could do great things before it’s too late.
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This is poetic stuff. The two great promises of the 1950-1960’s were space exploration just over the horizon and unlimited nearly free atomic energy.
After the moon landing, the space program let off with manned exploration. Fusion research never broke through and kept being put off to 30 years in the future. Even today fusion energy is something that’s 30 years off.
BUT BUT
There was an enormous breakthrough with thorium reactors that was shelved. Two working thorium reactors were in operation from 1966-1971. Thorium reactors would have cut the cost of electricity to 1/4 to 1/10 the cost of current lowest cost coal power. They are not only cheap but their dangers are a tiny fraction of light water reactors. They are portable to boot.
Thorium reactors were abandoned because they were not dual use and because the installed light water industry worked against thorium reactors. Amazingly the man who developed thorium reactors—alvin weinberg head of the oakridge labratories—also held the patents on light water reactors. Light water reactors were the reactors in use at the time and to this very day.
Weinberg went to his grave saying that the USA had made a terrible mistake by not going with thorium reactors.
Today the biggest developer of the thorium reactors are the Chinese. They actually read the online US stuff and believed the thorium advocates of lftr. So the chinese set up their own program. The US department of energy is still piddling around with light water reactors. The USA has two companies Transatomic Power and Flibe that are currently looking for money for thorium reactors.
In addition there is some interesting new basic research in dense plasma focus a version of fusion research.
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Now having said all that —the problems that are involved with a successful human space exploration are not trivial. imho that has been the primary reason that so much of the exploration of the solar system and beyond has been done by unmanned satellites and telescopes. In fact, likely the only thing this age will be remembered for is the discovery of exoplanets. The discovery that planets on other stars are utterly ubiquitous. (That therefor there are likely habitable planets circulating around other stars.) the rest will be totally forgotten. (Habitable planets have not yet been discovered but likely that will happen in the next ten years.)
I think that the more people will get into space in the next decades as private industry gets involve in space—especially the all too expensive booster phase into space and near earth orbit. NASA is currently funding three companies involved in booster phase.
As well, thorium power (thorium—of which the moon has plenty—as well as h3) and 3d printing will make longer term space exploration possible.
Most important is the constant acceleration of the power of computers. This acceleration of the power of computers is collapsing time frames in which events happen — including the exploration of space.
None of these technological developments come from the government. While the rot of government is apparent to everyone, the vitality of the civilian economy is also apparent to everyone.
However, while there is plenty of waste fraud and abuse in the federal government—including federal scientific research—federal money has also played an important role in the development of basic science and applied science.
The great sadness that the article points to is not that scientific and technological development has slowed down-—(indeed scientific and technological development—has been accelerating)—but rather that federal institutions like NASA are no longer conduits for the genius of the American civilization.
“Except, of course, the little green guys who were there to greet us.”
Those little green guys WERE us and they came from the future to show us in 1969 what we became 100,000 years later.
“they came from the future to show us in 1969 what we became 100,000 years later.”...
But that was then and this is now.
Space exploration is going to be taken away from Americans and given to A: muslims, and B: communist/democrat oligarchs.
Space exploration is going to be taken away from Americans and given to A: muslims, and B: communist/democrat oligarchs.
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no chance the muslims will do this.
the oil gas industry is going to recapitalize the USA by making the USA energy independent and returning the USA energy picture to the pre 1970 days.
When the muslims own the US. The muslioms are owners and slavemasters, not doers.
Competence yields self-respect.
Attitude yields self-esteem.
Aack! I meant to say “sea chantey”. I suppose I could listen to the sea chanteys in a sea shanty.
Wow! That’s pretty scary.
When the muslims own the US. The muslioms are owners and slavemasters, not doers.
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what’s happening now in the USA oil patch is making rapidly making this possibility very improbable. Technology is changing future history rapidly again as it did during the 1970’s
While I do not dispute most of what you say — I would be way out of my sphere of knowledge, anyway — I must disagree on what you identify as the great sadness in the essay.
IMO, the great sadness here is contained in this paragraph:
Apollo 11 is nice and well, but we have other priorities now. We don’t focus on actual achievements, but on social remedies, never realizing that our social remedies were achieved as spinoffs of achievements and that social problems can only be solved as part of the upward ascent of a civilization. There’s no percentage in thinking that way. Not when there are a lot more jobs for servicing social dysfunction than there are going into space.
^^
And his comments about society’s regard for competence being replaced with admiration for “attitude” are sadly true.
yeah I agree with all that.
What greenfield doesn’t get and probably never will get is that the way to reverse that is to bring God and prayer and bible study back into education.
The bible is the foundation of our civilization.
Knock that out and all the do good stuff just becomes jibberish and counter productive.
Well, what you may see - are seeing already - is Obama transferring the deed to the muslims. And when the US is “muslim lands”, there’s no way out except through seas of blood.
If thorium reactors are best they'll be swept up in the exploding knowledge acceleration ... Sad about NASA but they're PC yesterday and filled with government stupidity... Science is on the brink of tomorrow - machines inventing machines...
I agree with your remedy completely.
Can’t speak for Greenfield one way or the other.
Leonard Cohen put this Lord Byron poem to music - it’s on his “Dear Heather’ album...
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