Moon Base

[Balaam]

The whole discussion is based on establishing bases on the Moon or Mars at great expense for some future when the world is such a mess that getting off it seems like a good idea. It may not be racist thinking but it is elitist thinking, in as much as most of the world's population would be left behind to suffer whatever fate befalls them so that a small number can survive with some dream of settling among the stars.

i'm hoping that the conceptual designs for moon and mars bases will bring new ideas to help us here on earth
if science would be able to terraform a planet the same science could be used to terrareform earth
lots of things we take for granted today are a result of the discoveries paid for by the military and NASA (deliberately not mentioning the p0rn industry)

i agree we need to sort out our own back yard before we mess up another but one i'm hoping this type of project might lead to advancements that could actually solve some problems we've caused in the past

[Gamble]

i'm hoping that the conceptual designs for moon and mars bases will bring new ideas to help us here on earth
if science would be able to terraform a planet the same science could be used to terrareform earth
lots of things we take for granted today are a result of the discoveries paid for by the military and NASA

i agree we need to sort out our own back yard before we mess up another but one i'm hoping this type of project might lead to advancements that could actually solve some problems we've caused in the past

Exactly!!! advancments in one field of science leads to breakthroughs in other areas, thus leading to even more advances in technology.

[Balaam]

Exactly!!! advancments in one field of science leads to breakthroughs in other areas, thus leading to even more advances in technology.

how different would the world be without velcro and the internet?

[Rodri]

I am only going to address this accusation of racism that has been made against me.
I didnt pick this song because it was a black man being racist against the white man (more on that later) but rather because it is a poor man questioning what benefit he gets from the moon landing when his pay won't stretch to taking care of his sister's hospital bills because his rent and taxes have gone up. To me, that is a valid point and it's not about race, or colour, or country. It's about creating these massive resource drains that will hurt real people in the real world because their governments care more about a space station or moonbase than they do about the welfare of the ordinary people.

Now this thing about this song being racist. How can I put this?
It's not really racist at all. It's really not. If you think it is, then there must be some guilt in your mind that you are projecting onto the words of this song that makes you see it that way. The use of the term "whitey on the moon" was probably meant to provoke a response but really, it's not even offensive because it has no offensive context. It is not being used as a put-down of white people in the song. It is pointing out what was at that particular point in time the huge disparity between the lives of the average white man and the average black man in the USA at that time. This is a song written in the 1960's and the world was a different place. Now, I don't know what the situation is now, particularly in the USA, in regard to these issues but at that time these were very real, very divisive issues and anyone with any sense of right and wrong could see that what had happened to the black man in the USA was wrong. Calling a race out for the wrongs that they have done is not racist. It is the truth.

I am not exempt. My white ancestors came to Australia and took the land as their own, to the ongoing detriment of the native people. We still have a long way to go to repair the harm that was done to those people here and it is my responsibility to accept that the harm was done and my people did it. We cannot just sweep the past under the rug and forget about it because that leaves us open to making the same mistakes over and over again.

That's it. I got angry about being called a racist and I could lash out at the person who did so ( I probably already did in some ways) but that will achieve nothing. I will leave it at that.

[Nesterus]

guys cant we just all talk about how the moon has great cheese and we really need to be harvesting this moon cheese for the great justice of all the peoples of the earth

[Rodri]

I think I'm lactose intollerant.

[Nesterus]

moon cheese doesn't come from cows, therefore your stomachs natural weakness for milk products does not matter here

[Gamble]

i never called anyone a racist. and i'll leave it there because your just diverting this disscusion further away from where i intended it to be.

there are already massive resource drains that hurt real people in the real world, they called the armed forces. lots of resources there.

[Rodri]

Okay disband the armies of the world and you can have some of those resources for a space base. I'm fine with that.

(NASA is a military organisation. It was formed to do a propaganda task in the cold war and it survived beyond the cold war by providing a way to get military hardware into space. The science was incidental.)

[Nesterus]

lol disband all the armies, it is funny to listen to pacifists that have no clue about the real state of things in the world.

If we didnt have systems in place to keep unsavory people/leaders/nations from forcing their will upon others, then the world as you know it today wouldnt be possible.


Rodri is 100% right about NASA it was formed to provide military overwatch, NASA launched all the satellites that now watch our every move all over the world today.