To get to the nearest basket that is even remotely suitable for terraforming takes six months to get to. It's only 25 lightminutes away. The next closest planet that might be suitable for terraforming - should one be discovered there - would orbit Alpha Proxima, the nearest star to our sun. The journey would span 4.25 lightyears and take something like 25,000 years if we travelled at the speed the two Voyager craft are moving at now. It's a basket too far.Coito ergo sum wrote:I would say that it would be great to curb wastefulness here, but that doesn't solve the overall problem, which is lots of eggs, one basket.RiverF wrote:People would have to become far less wasteful .. and it would be enforced. Why not just enforce far less wastefulness here? Is our behaviour .. our gluttony, greed and apathy .. such that it is necessary to provide an extreme alternative in order to catalyse change? And would that really change such behaviour?
The Ethics of Space Tourism?
- Hermit
- Posts: 25806
- Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:44 am
- About me: Cantankerous grump
- Location: Ignore lithpt
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
The name is the disguise. "Sharing" is something one does voluntarily with others. "Stealing" is what "socialists" do to get what they want. You're not allowed not to "share" under socialism so it's not "sharing" its theft and slavery.rEvolutionist wrote:Socialism is about sharing. It's in the fucking name.Seth wrote:No, it's absolutely true. Selfishness is the key trait of socialists. "You have more than I do and that's not fair so I want somebody to come along and take what you have and give it to me."rEvolutionist wrote:You are essentially saying that socialists are selfish. That's patently ridiculous.
Quintessential socialism.
It's precisely like the big bully on the playground "sharing" your lunch money by threatening to pound you if you don't fork over.
"Sharing" my ass.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
© 2013/2014/2015/2016 Seth, all rights reserved. No reuse, republication, duplication, or derivative work is authorized.
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
© 2013/2014/2015/2016 Seth, all rights reserved. No reuse, republication, duplication, or derivative work is authorized.
- Hermit
- Posts: 25806
- Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:44 am
- About me: Cantankerous grump
- Location: Ignore lithpt
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
Who was the fuckwit that seeded the word "socialism" in this thread? Could you not foresee that, aided by his skillz wid da Search Tool The Broken Record will duly arrive and turn any topic into a discussion about Teh Ebils Of Communism? 

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
Clinton Huxley, aided and abetted by rEv.Hermit wrote:Who was the fuckwit that seeded the word "socialism" in this thread? Could you not foresee that, aided by his skillz wid da Search Tool The Broken Record will duly arrive and turn any topic into a discussion about Teh Ebils Of Communism?
Oh, and it takes two to tango Sparky.
"Seth is Grandmaster Zen Troll who trains his victims to troll themselves every time they think of him" Robert_S
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
© 2013/2014/2015/2016 Seth, all rights reserved. No reuse, republication, duplication, or derivative work is authorized.
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
"Those who support denying anyone the right to keep and bear arms for personal defense are fully complicit in every crime that might have been prevented had the victim been effectively armed." Seth
© 2013/2014/2015/2016 Seth, all rights reserved. No reuse, republication, duplication, or derivative work is authorized.
- pErvinalia
- On the good stuff
- Posts: 60739
- Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:08 pm
- About me: Spelling 'were' 'where'
- Location: dystopia
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
That's right, Seth. Us MARXIZTS are coming for you!!1 Muhaahahaha!Seth wrote:The name is the disguise.rEvolutionist wrote:Socialism is about sharing. It's in the fucking name.Seth wrote:No, it's absolutely true. Selfishness is the key trait of socialists. "You have more than I do and that's not fair so I want somebody to come along and take what you have and give it to me."rEvolutionist wrote:You are essentially saying that socialists are selfish. That's patently ridiculous.
Quintessential socialism.
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
- pErvinalia
- On the good stuff
- Posts: 60739
- Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:08 pm
- About me: Spelling 'were' 'where'
- Location: dystopia
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
We need to keep Seth guessing as to whether it is a hidden conspiracy to Marxise him, or whether it is an open one. Just when Seth thinks he has us Marxizts worked out, we change the rules a bit... :twisted:Hermit wrote:Who was the fuckwit that seeded the word "socialism" in this thread? Could you not foresee that, aided by his skillz wid da Search Tool The Broken Record will duly arrive and turn any topic into a discussion about Teh Ebils Of Communism?
Sent from my penis using wankertalk.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
"The Western world is fucking awesome because of mostly white men" - DaveDodo007.
"Socialized medicine is just exactly as morally defensible as gassing and cooking Jews" - Seth. Yes, he really did say that..
"Seth you are a boon to this community" - Cunt.
"I am seriously thinking of going on a spree killing" - Svartalf.
-
- Posts: 32040
- Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 2:03 pm
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
There is no other option. If it is acknowledged that one basket is too few, then we need other baskets.Hermit wrote:To get to the nearest basket that is even remotely suitable for terraforming takes six months to get to. It's only 25 lightminutes away. The next closest planet that might be suitable for terraforming - should one be discovered there - would orbit Alpha Proxima, the nearest star to our sun. The journey would span 4.25 lightyears and take something like 25,000 years if we travelled at the speed the two Voyager craft are moving at now. It's a basket too far.Coito ergo sum wrote:I would say that it would be great to curb wastefulness here, but that doesn't solve the overall problem, which is lots of eggs, one basket.RiverF wrote:People would have to become far less wasteful .. and it would be enforced. Why not just enforce far less wastefulness here? Is our behaviour .. our gluttony, greed and apathy .. such that it is necessary to provide an extreme alternative in order to catalyse change? And would that really change such behaviour?
If it is impossible, then we are doomed earlier than we might otherwise be, as a species, if we had more baskets. If it is not impossible, it's not impossible. However, without trying, we just assume it is not possible and nothing gets done.
- Clinton Huxley
- 19th century monkeybitch.
- Posts: 23739
- Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:34 pm
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
Sort out an asteroid shield, get the Earth's population down to about a billion and we are good for a bit. Any "second basket" would need the support of Basket One for quite some time, so lets get weaving fixing the holes.
"I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
http://25kv.co.uk/date_counter.php?date ... 20counting!!![/img-sig]
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled"
AND MERRY XMAS TO ONE AND All!
- Blind groper
- Posts: 3997
- Joined: Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:10 am
- About me: From New Zealand
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
Hate to tell you this, Hermit, but that is lousy logic. It works on the basic assumption that nothing will change, and we will never get any better at space travel. I think we can all see that assumption as being crappy.Hermit wrote:The next closest planet that might be suitable for terraforming - should one be discovered there - would orbit Alpha Proxima, the nearest star to our sun. The journey would span 4.25 lightyears and take something like 25,000 years if we travelled at the speed the two Voyager craft are moving at now. It's a basket too far.
If we want to send a probe to Proxima Centauri, or to the systems of Alpha Centauri A or Alpha Centauri B, we need a travel speed of about 0.1 c (one tenth of light speed). Allowing 10 years to accelerate and another 10 to decelerate, that means a total travel time of 55 years, which becomes feasible bearing in mind the people of the future will live a hell of a lot longer than we do.
Technology tends to grow by exponents. That means each technology has a specific doubling time. With computers, it is two years to double transisters per unit area without increasing cost. If we assume ion drive technology doubles in terms of achievable speed each 20 years, then it will take just over 300 years before humans can send a probe at 0.1 c.
- Warren Dew
- Posts: 3781
- Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:41 pm
- Location: Somerville, MA, USA
- Contact:
Re: The Ethics of Space Tourism?
The environmentalist in me says it's pretty questionable. That said, the commercial offerings are far more carbon efficient than the old governmental programs, even if they're doing it only for reasons of cost.Scrumple wrote:Is it ethical to waste precious resources for a hour of weightlessness and pollute the atmosphere? Would you? What is your justification of the risk? Would it change after the first big accident?
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests