If you think the politicians hold the purse strings ,,,you have another think coming.. they are not much more than overpaid sheepeople for sale to the highest bidder... with rare exception. Allan
On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 3:45 PM, Chuck Bowling < [email protected]> wrote: > Since the politicians hold the purse strings that goes without saying. > > > On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 5:00 AM, [email protected] < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Indeed political and fiscal. >> >> On May 19, 1:37 am, Chuck Bowling <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > I think right now the technology will only allow us to tell if a planet >> is >> > rocky or a gas giant. And even then only if it is a relatively massive >> > planet. The last time I read anything on the subject the smallest planet >> > found was something like 3 times the size of the Earth. >> > >> > IMO, the analogy with Columbus doesn't hold. 17th century technology >> allowed >> > humans to travel anywhere on the Earth - albeit slow and wrought with >> > hazard. If the analogy is that a neighboring star is like a new >> continent >> > then we are more like cavemen discovering that a log can float. At the >> rate >> > we're going it might be a thousand years before we can actually mount an >> > expedition to another star. >> > >> > I think the primary reason we are so far from actually exploring other >> stars >> > is mainly political rather than technological. But, I think you are >> right. >> > It is a project worth attaching too. Now if we could just make the damn >> > politicians see it that way... ;) >> > >> > >> > >> > On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:58 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: >> > > I'm not sure how accurate they can be in revealing planets enough like >> > > ours to offer possibilities of a new promised land. They claim there >> > > is one 20 light years away, or 300,000 years at current space travel >> > > speeds. One can feel that this at least puts us somewhere near the >> > > position of 'Columbus'. Our current 'tin-foil' technology won't do, >> > > but at this kind of distance we are talking about something other than >> > > worm-holes, 'relativity flight' or the kind of physics in which >> > > distance is an illusion. >> > >> > > For someone like me who can't take god-stories seriously and quite >> > > likes the idea of a human future (or at least the idea of evolution >> > > not just ending through catastrophe), there is an opportunity to >> > > believe in something distant in time and a need for us to direct >> > > ourselves towards it. A time, perhaps in which a form of conscious >> > > life can live very differently from now, and a project worth attaching >> > > to - perhaps a reason for spirituality. Comments on this or the >> > > technology welcome.- Hide quoted text - >> > >> > - Show quoted text - > > > -- ( ) I_D Allan If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
