[QUOTE=xtisme]
You can keep your gloom and doom…I’ll take a positive vision of the future (peak oil? gods…)
[/QUOTE]
Peak Oil is a fact - unlike your constant refrain of “WILL GO!”. We could dicker over the consequences of PO, but not the fact of its occurrence (unless you subscribe to non-biotic oil theories, of course)
[QUOTE=xtisme]
I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if’ we are going to Mars…short of a global catastrophe I think we (the US, Russia, China, Japan, Europe, or some combination of those) ARE going to Mars…this century. I think the critical mass for such a venture is nearly the point of no return…someone is going there. At this point, I don’t really care if it’s Chinese astronauts that first set foot on Mars…I’ll be cheering my head off and learning all about them. Humans ARE going to Mars, and the only question I have is…will I still be wandering about the world when they get there.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t get me wrong, I would rejoice in any Mars landings just like I rejoiced in the Rover’s first pics. I just don’t think it’ll happen in this century - because of that “global catastrophe”. Or that it would be as world-shattering as you believe, even if it did.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Complete gloom and doom horseshit. Digital media has penetrated into parts of the world that couldn’t have even dreamed about it during Apollo…and look how much world wide support that got.
[/QUOTE]
Dude, South Africa (the most technically advanced African country by far) didn’t even have TV when Armstrong stepped down. Believe me, it was no big deal here.
But I’m not saying people won’t have the ability to see the landing. I’m saying they won’t care.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Third world countries and Asian sweatshops aren’t new…they weren’t invented this decade. You think they are worse than during the time of Apollo or Sputnik?? Really?
[/QUOTE]
Since the absolute numbers of people in those places is definitely much more now, yes, they are worse.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
I seriously think that some of you have a skewed view point of what people in third world countries are capable of caring about…and understanding I’ve been to places that barely had running water…yet they had electricity and internet connectivity.
[/QUOTE]
And posters of Tupac on the walls, I know, I know. Doesn’t mean they give two pesos about Mars missions, en masse.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
And you would be surprised as to what those poor ‘Middle Ages’ peasants ACTUALLY care about, and know.
[/QUOTE]
No, I wouldn’t. I know enough.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
I’m sure you didn’t mean it this way (IIRC you are from Africa somewhere, not the US/Europe), but to me what you are saying here is back handed cultural arrogance.
[/QUOTE]
No, it isn’t - it’s observation and experience.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Like saying that my family who still live in Mexico and scratch out a living there couldn’t hope to understand such a mission enough to care about it, couldn’t set aside their brutish existence to think of something beyond pulling weeds in the field or working in that sweat shop.
[/QUOTE]
If that’s what they are currently doing, then no, I doubt very much they would watch a Mars landing live on Three-Vee. In my experience, people like that are much more likely to want to see the next football World Cup than a Mars landing. Even in America and Europe, sport and reality T.V. get more public attention than the BBC science shows. People in the rest of the world? No different.
They don’t have the knowledgebase to realise what makes such an event important to people like you or I. Sure, there’ll be one kid in the village who dreams of stars (I know, I was that kid in my home ghetto), but mass impact? I doubt it.
[QUOTE=xtisme]
Bullshit.
[/QUOTE]
Take it to the Pit. Not buying into your Arean daydream is no reason to get abusive.