Soldato
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If everybody needs a military because everybody else has a military then why does anyone need a military?
Jupiter moon Europa has shallow lakes
- Thread starter LoGaN_TnT
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If everybody needs a military because everybody else has a military then why does anyone need a military?
It's kind of like iPhones.
Soldato
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It's quite staggering isn't it.
+1
I personally would like to know the answer to this question before I die.
The only organisations I can possibly see not wanting this to be the case are religious ones, perhaps, who knows proof of life on another planet may bring into question why so many people have been killed in the name of a story character.
Space exploration will lead to the formation of extra-terrestrial colonies which would give humanity a chance of survival if something happened to the Earth. To my thinking it is a simple matter of not having all your eggs in one basket. It’s plain, common sense.
Also, the point someone made that people would still carry on their daily lives even if they knew about bacteria 3km below Europa’s moon. Most would, I have no doubt. But if life exists there, it could exist elsewhere. And that is important because our solar system is relatively young. It would hint towards complex life out there somewhere and would also dispel our arrogant assumption that we are alone and unique. It’d certainly be interesting to watch the contortions that certain religious groups would have to go through to assimilate it into their model (and probably “prove” how they were right all along, and the other religions were all wrong
)
Also, the point someone made that people would still carry on their daily lives even if they knew about bacteria 3km below Europa’s moon. Most would, I have no doubt. But if life exists there, it could exist elsewhere. And that is important because our solar system is relatively young. It would hint towards complex life out there somewhere and would also dispel our arrogant assumption that we are alone and unique. It’d certainly be interesting to watch the contortions that certain religious groups would have to go through to assimilate it into their model (and probably “prove” how they were right all along, and the other religions were all wrong
)
Man of Honour
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I wouldn't say the Olympics was a waste yet, I think we'd have to wait until after the Games to accurately judge that. I wouldn't dispute that some of the money could have been spent better or that some of the things aren't a bit of a farce - Olympics posters and artwork I'm looking at you but overall it should be a worthwhile investment for the UK.
The countries that spend the most on their militaries also tend to be the ones that have space programmes e.g. USA, China, Russia (France and Great Britain pop up in there but the space programmes in Europe are a collaboration normally) but for the sake of argument lets take the top 5 military budgets (figures courtesy of Wikipedia) and they amount to almost $1 trillion. Compare that to the space budget for the whole of the World from the graph of $38 billion and it still seems a shade unbalanced to me, sure the percentage has increased but we're still talking fractional spend in comparison.
Suspended
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You don't work for NASA, so with respect I'm not sure you have any understanding of what could be achieved if the will existed. I suspect that's the only reason further space exploration hasn't happened - there's no will.
The Apollo moon landings were driven by Cold War hostility. If similar tensions were to develop between China and the US, then you may see further developments. The other issue is of course that the US is completely buggered financially, so quite how they'd finance all of this is a mystery.
That we can then destroy with our military might
We have to realise that if we want to keep farming tuna from out seas and it not becoming a rarity in shops and incredibly expensive, we have to seek new sources, so the potential for shallow lakes on this moon may mean there could be tuna swimming around.
Space exploration, for me, is pretty much ultimately about one thing; answering one of the biggest philosophical questions of all time - 'Why are we here?'. I believe this should be the pinnacle of human ambition. To do this we need to advance science, increase our understanding of the universe and preserve the human race as long as possible. Sure, we may never find an answer but to say that finding water on another celestial body isn't significant or worthwhile is, at best, shortsighted.
or they destroy us
you have to remember the universe operates in the millions/billions of years, if we EVER make contact with intelligent life they could be so much further along the evolutionary trail than we are; or visa versa. either way there has to be a first step in this process and this is it. so nay sayers, do one!
B@
Soldato
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Maybe they're waiting until we don't have such violent tendencies before they contact us?
probably not. if they have the technology to contact us freely then our weapons aren't going to much of a problem for them are they?
Plus it raises the question of there being no god, perhaps first contact would bring about world peace? Making contact for that reason, to lead towards a unified solar system, could be motivation enough for such a people. Infact i'd go as far to say that it's irresponsible not to; seeing as we're capable of understanding what it means.
Obviously this isn't the case though, at the moment we are alone in the dark.
B@
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Look at it this way those that disbelieve;
Space exploration = advancement and possible continuation of the species
Military = destruction of the species
I know what I'd like more money put on Why don't we take money from the military and put that into the 1001 things that we could be spending money on better
Space exploration = advancement and possible continuation of the species
Military = destruction of the species
I know what I'd like more money put on
Why don't we take money from the military and put that into the 1001 things that we could be spending money on better
Caporegime
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Lets hope Baby Fark McGee-zax doesn't come down demanding a new warp drive......
there is no reason for use being here.
unless you mean what started life (freak combination of ?stuff? that stared to self replicate at some point), or the evolutionary answer - we are here to pass on our genes (so your purpose is to have kids)
people saying that its a waste of money need to really start reading a book or two and stop judging stuff based on their limited knowledge.
can you really not understand the importance of exploration? the importance of finding other living organisms? the importance of finding resources elsewhere? Inhabitable planets? the exploitation and development of space technology in order to travel to far star systems?
These are just some of the objectives which from these you can extract a lot of benefits for the simple man, which i'm not going to cover now.
people who in the past chose to ignore the sky and the starts went extinct. who's to say this won't happen to the future as well? For different reasons of course, but the result will be the same.
Even if you do not understand any of the importance for these things, and the benefits they provide, then understand the term CURIOSITY which everyone has in a degree of some sort and enables us to ask certain questions, like "Are we alone?", "How did life start?" and other countless questions relevant to the subject of space.
What if al the great explorers of the past said the same thing and we now only knew Europe? what impact would that have to life, technology, resources? I bet if no land was discovered, we would be extinct de to the wars for expansion to a continent not so big.
can you really not understand the importance of exploration? the importance of finding other living organisms? the importance of finding resources elsewhere? Inhabitable planets? the exploitation and development of space technology in order to travel to far star systems?
These are just some of the objectives which from these you can extract a lot of benefits for the simple man, which i'm not going to cover now.
people who in the past chose to ignore the sky and the starts went extinct. who's to say this won't happen to the future as well? For different reasons of course, but the result will be the same.
Even if you do not understand any of the importance for these things, and the benefits they provide, then understand the term CURIOSITY which everyone has in a degree of some sort and enables us to ask certain questions, like "Are we alone?", "How did life start?" and other countless questions relevant to the subject of space.
What if al the great explorers of the past said the same thing and we now only knew Europe? what impact would that have to life, technology, resources? I bet if no land was discovered, we would be extinct de to the wars for expansion to a continent not so big.
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