From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue May 27 2003 - 15:28:45 MDT
The online version of Wired from May (Issue 11.05) has
a very interesting commentary on the politics of where
China and India want to go vis-a-vis space. While we
may be focused on the X-prize there appears to be some
much bigger prizes on the table.
The New Cold War
India and China are picking up where the US and Soviet Union left off.
By Bruce Sterling
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/view.html?pg=4
Bruce's comments are based on the assumption of modest
advances of "old-tech". They are somewhat frightening
considering the technologies we can anticipate developing
over the next 20 years. While it is not clear that
India has a really active nanotech development effort,
China certainly is pushing on both biotech (esp. stem
cell research) and nanotech.
Interesting that we may be dealing with subjective
"offenses" that are over 40 years old -- points out how
long the human collective memory may be and how detrimental
it may be to humanity (how long does one hold a grudge?).
On the other hand maybe that isn't so bad. E.g. Americans
are going to be *really* annoyed if the flag at Tranquillity
Base gets folded up -- perhaps that would provoke us into
getting serious about going into space).
Robert
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