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Paul Birch and Mass Stream applications for the real world
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(02-25-2014, 04:02 PM)Dalex Wrote: Nowhere in my post I said that only space exploration counts but compare our technology with that from Space Odyssey.
We don't have Turing grade AI, interplanetary vessels, moon colony or causal travel to orbit.
And consider this:when Clarke wrote his books all of that seemed feasible.

Of course instead of that we have internet, genetic modification (also present later in SO series) and lots of other stuff.

Whilst you didn't explicitly state it all your focus has been on space related topics. Is isn't a personal attack btw, I think this is a very common attitude. But in reality the future of the past was never going to be space. We live in a time with robot assassins, extended minds, near instant communication and retrieval of knowledge, a world in which democracy is becoming the norm although economic disparity is trending towards oligarchy, countries like China have gone from famine and poverty strewn backwaters to economic superpowers etc etc.

So yeah, if SF has run out of "big ideas" in terms of visionary futures it's because the visions of the past (space) were never that visionary, aspirational sure but not a reality. The cyberpunk and transhumanist movements have come and gone (or at least the last one is heading out) and we might not have seen a big thing yet because of how these past visions have turned out with regards to real events.

(02-25-2014, 04:02 PM)Dalex Wrote: As for bacteria on Mars. Lets imagine this scenario: Vikings land and their experiments confirm presence of life. Do you honestly think that NASAs budget would get cut so much and that we remained in LEO if that happened?

Well I can't speak for the time of the Viking landers as space science was more popular but yeah it wouldn't surprise me if history progressed pretty much the same for the reasons I've stated above. Why would you think it would be different? Space exploration, especially manned, is very very hard and very very expensive. Despite hundreds of billions of dollars over the last several decades technologies haven't developed to the point where those two statements aren't true.
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RE: Paul Birch and Mass Stream applications for the real world - by Rynn - 02-26-2014, 03:49 AM

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