This post originally passed on a question about the Mars Society. I got
interested in the Mars Society a couple of years ago and joined their
"culture and governance" list. Since then, I've become fairly disillusioned
with the MS. The quality of discussion on the culture and governance list
was very low, IMO: Very few posters seemed to be able to think beyond the
level of contemporary political sloganeering and there seemed to be almost no
recognition of the impact of accelerating technological change on the
material circumstances of extraterrestrial activity and the political and
cultural realities in which that activity will take place.
Beyond this, the "cheerleeding" noted in the original post seems to go beyond
mere enthusiasm. Basically, Zubrin's work, supplemented by an almost
religious reverence for Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy, seem to set
outside limits on the thinking going on in this group.
Of course, my comments need to be taken in the context of the current
evolution in my thinking about space development. As I expressed here
recently, the prospects for a really meaningful change in the pattern and
pace of space development seem to me to be stalled until some very
significant technological changes occur.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
ICQ # 61112550
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know
enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another
question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
-- Desmond Morris
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:25 MDT