On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, John Hebert wrote: > Making money does not necessarily make the effort > ignoble.
My sentiments exactly... > Of course, the problem comes when people confuse long > term and short term benefits of science. Sure, the > achievements of SpaceShipOne may not make a lot of > money anytime soon, but the longer term benefits may > mean that we don't have to wait for the US government > to put a station on the moon, or like Will said, mine > the asteroid belt. I trust rockets geeks funded by > computer geeks more than the US govt. Again, right on. I see long term as 50-100+ years. I'd say short term is 10-15 years. E-commerce exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry in less than 10 years. Space tourism could do the same. And stem cell research? Sure it's all privately funded now, as the profit expectations of stem cell technology are astronomical. And those profits will be realized in the next 10 years. Investing a few hundred million now for a return of billions within 10 years is not a bad investment. Money aside, the science behind those initiatives is amazing, and should not be discredited because some people will make money off of it. ray
