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elanya at 09:14pm on 01/02/2003
elanya at 09:14pm on 01/02/2003I was thinking, about the space shuttle accident.
I was thinking 'wow, gee, 7 whole people died'. Yeah, I'm callous and apathetic. Few of you out there should be surprised.
I was also thinking 'I wonder how many people die in industrial accidents each year in the States? I bet it is more than seven.'
So, eventually, I got around to actually looking. I found some stats from a couple of individual states. This is from California. It's a table showing number and percent distribution of fatal occupational injuries by industry for 1990-2000. Shall I draw your attention to the first colum? The total of those fatal occupational injuries is 553. *553* for *one year* in *one state*.
Ooooh, the astronauts have just had a bad accident. Meh. When was the last time there was an astronautical accident which cost lives? Challenger was almost 20 years ago.
I was thinking 'wow, gee, 7 whole people died'. Yeah, I'm callous and apathetic. Few of you out there should be surprised.
I was also thinking 'I wonder how many people die in industrial accidents each year in the States? I bet it is more than seven.'
So, eventually, I got around to actually looking. I found some stats from a couple of individual states. This is from California. It's a table showing number and percent distribution of fatal occupational injuries by industry for 1990-2000. Shall I draw your attention to the first colum? The total of those fatal occupational injuries is 553. *553* for *one year* in *one state*.
Ooooh, the astronauts have just had a bad accident. Meh. When was the last time there was an astronautical accident which cost lives? Challenger was almost 20 years ago.
apathetic
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I hope for the former.
And I don't give a rats ass for the majority of humanity, but astronauts rate pretty highly in my book. So I do mourn them more than I do John Q. Public.
Rating astronauts highly
Humans in outer space - a terrifying thought
Before we go off and poison other planets, which seems to be what you are suggesting we must do, we ought to learn how to care for this one.
This planet can provide us with everything we need; it already does. We don't distribute its wealth properly, though. Some people realize this and are trying to change things, but they are a minority and have little power in the face of exploitative mega-corporations, wasteful consumerism, and governments ruled by those with money - generally the same corporations that plunder the earth.
The billions and billions of dollars that go into building space shuttles that blow up could be put to better use learning ways to protect our environment and to share the bounty the earth provides.
Once we learn to nurture our own planet and ourselves, we can turn our eyes to the stars.
In the end though, what's one more space shuttle blowing up? It's happened before and didn't stop the space program. I don't think you need to worry about setbacks.
I am glad I'll be dead before we head out into the unknown, minds set on raping other planets of all their resources before moving inexorably on.
Re: Humans in outer space - a terrifying thought
I don't think it's insulting at all. It's just that we're overdue for another really big meteor hit: like the one that killed the dinosaurs. In this way, space research is conservation.
This is not to say that people should quit with the conservation efforts down here on good ol' Earth.
I think there are other industries which chew up billions and billions of dollars whose funds could be reallocated in a way which wouldn't detract from space exploration/development. All we have to do is divert all the funds from the next few Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Roberts flicks, and we'll have saved the pandas.
Heh....
Re: Humans in outer space - a terrifying thought
Re: Humans in outer space - a terrifying thought
Yes, eventually another meteor will hit. But a meteor isn't a thinking, intelligent being which is aware of what it is doing and continues doing it anyway. Humans are.
Poison *what*?
And what exactly are we going to poison? There are 2 other chunks of rock we can live on in this solar system. The Moon and Mars (Mercury and Venus are too hot). Neither one has life - in Mar's case, nothing above the microbe level if that - and there's nothing we can do that will "ruin" either of them. But even they aren't really the focus.
I'm talking about asteroids. Giant chunks of minerals, metals, and water floating around. Once we can harness these, the resources they provide *and* the technologies we will have to develop to do so will give us a chance to give the Earth a break.
This isn't some Star Trek fantasy I'm talking about. FTL travel, barring a completely out in left field discovery - isn't going to happen. Plush worlds filled with alien life? Nope. Sorry. Not likely for a LONG time. I'm talking about harnessing the energy and resources inherent in our own system to take the strain off Earth's ecosystem. You won't need nuclear reactors or coal/oil factories when you simply beam the power down from solar collectors. Strip mining? When it's easier to drop refined products from asteroids down into our gravity well, why bother?
And that technology and knowledge that goes into space travel benefits a lot of people. Satellite communications, medical/commercial advances... know anyone with a teflon joint replacement or artificial heart? Thank the early moon launches. Lasers were developed partly as a result of space programs (it's a great way to tightbeam messages and measure distances), so if you ever get that Lasik surgery you can thank them for helping refine the accuracy. Freezedried foods... the list can go on and on.
We're not talking colonial-era pillaging of other cultures or slash-burning rainforests. There's nothing to fuck up on an asteroid or on the moon. It's not the end-all, be-all of technology but it's definitely up there.
Well, that's part of the problem and the solution.
Once we can get more of our resources from elsewhere, this will be reduced drastically and then maybe we can actually start trying to fix the damage in a serious way.
We'll also need to make some other drastic changes, though... capping the population would make an excellent start, say via breeding licenses and mandated, reversible contraception. LadyIolanthe mentioned something about all those rich sports figures, well, they don't fuck things up nearly as much as millions of people having kids and all the resources necessary to maintain the population growth.
If you want to get _callous_
Anyway, as Ayr said, the mourning of this tragedy isn't so much for the people themselves, as we don't even know them. I, personally, feel saddened whenever a disaster like this happens. It's like a punch in my stomach. And it's all because, on a daily basis, I live under the presumption that humanity is worth effort and hope, and we can and will progress to better and more meaningful things. And, for many obvious reasons, the US space program represents a means for the hope to be realised. When these tremendous setbacks happen, it's saddening.
Yet, of course, not as sad as the joke that is the Shuttle in the first place... but that's another story, and isn't as tragic. Just sad and frustrating.
-- Rum
Re: If you want to get _callous_
If you want to get _callous_
-- Rum
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It's not an issue of what makes it sad, but of what makes it newsworthy. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, all over America and the rest of the world avidly follow the NASA space program, or are interested in what is going on with space technology. Thousands of people across Texas were eye-witness to the disaster. People want to know about it. Not just the fact that it is a tragedy, which it is, but what caused it, and how this will affect the NASA program.
Does that make sense?