James GleickDec 1, 2024

This seems so science-fictiony that most people won't take it seriously. That would be a bad mistake.

Not only are we messing up the planet, we're also inadvertently shutting our door to space. When we're shut in, we're probably shut in for ever.

And when I say "we" are shutting that door, I mean mainly Musk.

https://robertvanwey.substack.com/p/the-imminence-of-the-destruction

The Imminence of the Destruction of the Space Program

New calculations put the date much closer than we should be comfortable with

The Evidence Files
Show threadCassandrichDec 2, 2024
@gleick I'm not convinced shutting the door isn't a good thing. It completely cuts off both the TESCREAList narrative about "good of the future trillions of human minds across the galaxy at the expense of every real person here now except the billionaires" and the prospects of space capitalism. We don't need space; it's awesome to explore but not essential to survival or happiness.
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024
@dalias that feels wrong to us, emotionally, but we don't have a principled argument
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024
@dalias weather satellites are the really big thing that ground-based tech is considerably less useful for, so there's that
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024
@dalias but it's not really about the practical concerns to us
Show threadCassandrichDec 2, 2024
@ireneista To me it is. I love space, space exploration, Voyager, Mars rovers, etc. But I love humanity and the hopes of us overcoming capitalist-fascism more, and would be gladly willing to give up space if that's what it took to drive it home to everyone that we have to learn to live together here not chase billionaires' scam-fantasies about colonizing space.
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024
@dalias but think, like, hundreds of years ahead... is that actually the way it will play out? we don't think it is, we don't see why it would be
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024

@dalias space exploration drove imagination in the 20th century, and pushed back against religion-driven conservativism to an astonishing degree, because it was new and involved a fundamental change to how humanity conceptualizes itself

but given time any social force becomes, you know... old and less exciting

Show threadIrenes (many)
@dalias one way or another space exploration is unlikely to be thought of as transformative even fifty years from now. yes, that is sad, and honestly a condemnation of humanity's choices and priorities. one way or another there will be a society, and the dedicated dickheads will use the dominant social forces of that society to their advantage.
Dec 2, 2024 at 5:21amWeb
Show threadIrenes (many)Dec 2, 2024
@dalias we appreciate the poetry of feeling like this sacrifice of space could have a benefit, but we just don't see why it would work that way