Space Fascism: The dreams of a generation reduced to "ugh"

All my life I have had a love of space and the stars. It developed when my father first taught me the names of all 9 planets when I was 3 or 4. When I was 6 I watched Armstrong step off the LEM onto the moon. I had high hopes for the Apollo program and was disappointed when it ended. I remember Apollo-Soyuz and Skylab. Watching the Viking launch was a bright spot in a rather boring adolescence. Seeing the photos later was really special to me. The shuttle and the space station...well they're in space and appear to be about all we've got.

Most of this stuff, the programs, astronauts and all...most of it is government funded. For years we've heard talk of privately funded space programs. Efforts so far have been intriguing and I look forward to more from people like Branson and Rutan. The problem with privatisation is when the shift happens. That is the point at which a massive corporation assumes the funding of space travel.

If you watch science fiction, from the best to the worst, there is always "the company" involved. It's troubling that the cost is so high that only big players can participate longterm. I don't want our first manned interplanetary trip turned into a reality show. And that's probably what will happen. We're already being pre-programmed with movies like the 2009 Virtuality where the first interstellar mission has a host with a camcorder in everyone's face. I started making the gag sign as soon as I realised what they were doing. I'll post a review later.

Tastes Like Chicken

Accurate Reporting

Terminator kills human by mistake, then says "My Bad"

Well not quite but I've never seen Cameron make a mistake.

Cameron and John: New rule

If she's going to kill him, even in some elseworld flashbacky vision, she has to give him a little first. Even the black widow spider mates with the male before eating him. Skynet and the Terminator producers should at least show John that much respect.

Grand Theft Spaceship

A shipful of agnostics

Group living in close quarters is not an easy thing. When I was in Israel in 1985 we had about 18 people sharing a house. There were four bedrooms, maybe five and several people slept on the roof. We got along and we didn't get along. We broke into cliques. We made friends. We made enemies. There was some contact during the immediate months and years after the six weeks of that summer and I don't know if any others are in touch now 23 years later. If you count the atheists there were at least three major religions represented there. There were disagreements over religion and I doubt anything was argued through to any kind of resolution. It was a complex interpersonal situation and it needed to be short duration.

So lets move ahead a few years...past all the international bickering and BS...to a point where we're actually able to send a crew on a long term space voyage. Long term for us is going to have to be the Mars mission. Are we going to just throw the people together and send them up and let them be people or are we going to screen them to the point where everyone just fits together like parts in a machine? And if we go with this second option, can they have strong political and/or religious beliefs? Or will they need to be neutral as far as those things go?

We might need a combination. There are certain personalities that won't do for any kind of close-quarters situation. Some folks need to be able to limit their interaction with others significantly. I don't think either extreme is a good idea. Human experience gives us plenty of examples of how well unmoderated groups do in situations which allow no escape and limited solitude. Over-screened, hand picked groups who are chosen because of their ability to work together is an idea which has its downside. Such a situation is artificial and would have some unwelcome herdish and other psychological effects.

Whatever group is picked is going to have to train intensely as a group where they have a way out before we put them in a metal and glass container and send them millions of miles away.

Question

If an intense and sometimes painful erection that results after an extended period driving a semi is diesel-dick, then is an intense and sometimes painful erection that results after an extended period in orbit space-dick?

A little wisdom overlooked in Star Trek

When we truly start encountering new peoples and new civilizations, we might do well to not refer to them as species...at least in their presence.

Watching Close Encounters

I wonder if anyone out there misses the good old days, when aliens just played with little kids' toys, scared the cat and buzzed the highway patrol.