jwz2d ago

I miss the olden days when I could manage to give even one fractional shit about human spaceflight.

When every news article didn't require navigating whether it was propaganda, or a grift, or both (because it's *never* science).

When I thought that humanity surviving beyond Earth was even *remotely* possible.

This timeline sucks.

https://jwz.org/b/yk51

Show threadjwz2d ago

Once there is:

• A luxury hotel atop Everest, or
• A settlement 500m below the surface of any ocean; or
• Any city getting 30% of its veggies/grains from subway hydroponics; or
• Vegas making all of its own water;

...then I will concede that we have solved the first 1% of the problems needed to be a spacefaring species.

Absent any of that, putting monkeys in a can is just a premature stunt.

This timeline sucks.

Show threadmbpaz2d ago

@jwz tbh, a luxury hotel atop mount Everest would be possible if not for politics. It's the sort of thing that is useless but lots of money can get built, and some insanely rich people would be willing to pay for.

On the other hand, a small functional village up there would be an immense challenge.

Show threadjwz2d ago

@mbpaz Everest is a paradise! An abundant embarrassment of oxygen, water ice and sunlight. Supply lines that are, relatively speaking, a rounding error. And yet.. no hotel.

And no native microbial life. After a billion years, the most rapacious, tenacious replicator in the known universe -- life -- has looked at Everest and said, "Nah, I'm good."

Life did not, "uh, find a way."

https://www.jwz.org/blog/2025/03/but-he-does-good-work/#comment-257392

But He Does Good Work

I was about to post this as a reply to someone on my "Make Nazis Sweat Again" post, which has derailed into car-brained windshield-view defenses of Musk, but it got long, sooooo.... The world is full of people who, in this, the Year of Our Basilisk, 2025, are willing to loudly admit, "Yeah, I knew Musk was -- [pick one or all] -- 1) a homophobe, 2) a racist, 3) a con man, 4) a eugenicist, 5) ...

Show threadMontessori Space Programme 🛸2d ago
@jwz @mbpaz One might point out here that a luxury hotel atop Everest would be a sign that we're headed away from solving the world's problems, considering it's a sacred mountain to the people of the region.
Show threadWellsiteGeo
@anarchiv @jwz @mbpaz That - the sacredness - is probably the smallest problem for the project. Divine thunderbolts being notoriously absent for all religions.
It remains a stupid idea, nonetheless.
Apr 7 at 11:42amWeb
Show threadMontessori Space Programme 🛸2d ago

@WellsiteGeo @jwz @mbpaz It's not about thunderbolts, it's about cultural significance.

Take a somewhat more secular example + building a hotel on top of Mount Olympus (not Olympus Mons) would be technologically viable, people would still be pissed even though there are hardly any Hellenic pagans in Greece today.