Bezos Beyond

[LDAHL]

I see that on July 20, Jeff Bezos is scheduled to become the first billionaire in space. You can even bid on a ticket to ride along. Does this mean that for a few soaring minutes someone else will be the richest person on Earth? Free shipping to the International Space Station?

I’m looking forward to a future where space travel is not run by government employees.

[catherine]

I think Jeff Bezos has made a comment that is both correct and infuriating, and that is:

"We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilization. We have become big as a population, as a species, and this planet is relatively small. We see it in things like climate change and pollution and heavy industry. We are in the process of destroying this planet." (bolding mine)


The fact that this is an assumption we have to accept as inevitable is crazy! We have this sacred space we've been given where up until less than a couple of hundred years ago we co-existed nicely with all the other elements of the earth: water, air, soil, flora and fauna. So we crap it up with industry and instead of saying "we have to clean up our act" we say "Hey, we can move out of this polluted dung heap and spend billions to adapt to an extraterrestrial home."

Didn't our mothers tell us to clean up our rooms? To leave things as we found them? I don't care if Bezos wants to go traveling in space. I don't care if Hilton wants to put a resort on Mars. But I do care that we just take it for granted that if we create unliveable conditions on earth through our own foolishness it doesn't matter. We don't have to fix it. Grrr..

[razz]

What is the difference between an employee of Bezos and your government? They all require intelligence, accuracy, vision etc., do they not?

Who will set the checks and balances of space travel as Russia, China, the UK and US and others join the game of space travel? Then it will be governed by international agency employees with oversight of US efforts by the other countries.

Perhaps you need to clarify for me the actual point that your OP was driving towards.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I think Jeff Bezos has made a comment that is both correct and infuriating, and that is:

"We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilization. We have become big as a population, as a species, and this planet is relatively small. We see it in things like climate change and pollution and heavy industry. We are in the process of destroying this planet." (bolding mine)

it's not correct as the "solution" of going into space won't work. But honestly the people saying stuff like this aren't too bright, they might be in a very limited sphere - running amazon perhaps, but there are of limited intelligence, limited to that pretty much.

[bae]

I believe that to survive as a species, long-term, we will have to go into space. It's just math.

One of my current projects is using a large network of telescopes to detect and track earth orbit crossing asteroids...

Sooner or later, this planet is going to have a very bad day, and it would be best if we had some other options.

This *doesn't* mean "crap up the Earth, then onto the next planet to pillage" - it's not an either/or thing. (And heck, it's gotta be easier to "fix" Earth back up than to terraform some other place... I mean, except for the paperwork...)

As to Bezos being of "limited intelligence", well, I went to college with him, and he seemed reasonably smart, across a range of disciplines, though not one of the outlier super-smart people. His statement about the need to get into space is in line with similar conclusions by Very Very Smart people.

[frugal-one]

I believe that to survive as a species, long-term, we will have to go into space. It's just math.

One of my current projects is using a large network of telescopes to detect and track earth orbit crossing asteroids...

Sooner or later, this planet is going to have a very bad day, and it would be best if we had some other options.

This *doesn't* mean "crap up the Earth, then onto the next planet to pillage" - it's not an either/or thing. (And heck, it's gotta be easier to "fix" Earth back up than to terraform some other place... I mean, except for the paperwork...)

As to Bezos being of "limited intelligence", well, I went to college with him, and he seemed reasonably smart, across a range of disciplines, though not one of the outlier super-smart people. His statement about the need to get into space is in line with similar conclusions by Very Very Smart people.

Happy to report I probably will be dead by then.

[catherine]

I believe that to survive as a species, long-term, we will have to go into space. It's just math.

One of my current projects is using a large network of telescopes to detect and track earth orbit crossing asteroids...

Sooner or later, this planet is going to have a very bad day, and it would be best if we had some other options.

This *doesn't* mean "crap up the Earth, then onto the next planet to pillage" - it's not an either/or thing. (And heck, it's gotta be easier to "fix" Earth back up than to terraform some other place... I mean, except for the paperwork...)

As to Bezos being of "limited intelligence", well, I went to college with him, and he seemed reasonably smart, across a range of disciplines, though not one of the outlier super-smart people. His statement about the need to get into space is in line with similar conclusions by Very Very Smart people.

Bezos was the one that suggested that climate change, pollution and industry is what is necessitating some people wanting to ditch the Titanic. I'm assuming the math you are referring to is the growing population and the resources needed to support all of us. OK. But we can also argue if we didn't consume so many resources to begin with; if we didn't pollute the air and water; if we didn't strip the topsoil; if we didn't create an economic system that is based on consumption; if we didn't get used to modern 20th century luxuries like electricity and plane transport, maybe we'd be in a better place. I don't object to the exploration, I object to how we take our destructive habits for granted. That's what needs to be "fixed."

[LDAHL]

Who will set the checks and balances of space travel as Russia, China, the UK and US and others join the game of space travel? Then it will be governed by international agency employees with oversight of US efforts by the other countries.

Will that necessarily be the case? International control over things like fisheries or the Arctic resources being exposed by melting ice seem fairly loose as far as checks and balances are concerned. China can pretty much ignore maritime law as they construct “islands” and try to seize control of large tracts of ocean. I don’t see some future version of the EU or UN issuing laws for the solar system without the means to enforce their edicts. I think it will look more like the Age of Discovery or the Scramble for Africa as various groups carve out areas of operation for themselves. Will there be various bureaucracies pretending to be in charge? Probably, but I doubt they will have much of an impact in the foreseeable future.

[bae]

I'm assuming the math you are referring to is the growing population and the resources needed to support all of us.

No, I was referring to the eventual impact of a giant space rock, wiping out most any large critter on the planet. Which has happened before, and will likely happen again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretac...tinction_event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceguard

As to us messing up this planet, that's just silly of us. It's a perfectly good planet, and easier to fix than moving somewhere else. I hate moving.

[ApatheticNoMore]

If we didn't have such a growing population, really that was the EASY way (compared to living in a cave), but not one that was or is taken. Exploration is one thing, much of which doesn't require sending humans anywhere, replicating the advantages of life on earth another and very doubtful.