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Brannock posted:Good luck implementing full communism. I'm sure it'll be worth our squandered future. It's fairly hilarious that you think that colonizing the stars is more realistic than full communism(an already far-fetched scenario). Hari Seldon will lead you to the next Foundation any day now. 
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Apr 14, 2015 19:37
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In more on topic news, Obama has said that he'd sign the latest bipartisan bill regarding Iran, thus ensuring that it won't have enough republican votes to pass. Trollbama best Obama.
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Apr 14, 2015 19:45
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They'll show him when they vote 50 times to defund Iran!
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Apr 14, 2015 19:49
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Munkeymon posted:They'll show him when they vote 50 times to defund Iran! Repeal Obamacare/Defund Iran/Insult Cuba/Degay Marriage omnibus bill.
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Apr 14, 2015 19:50
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gradenko_2000 posted:Birac Uboma has two B's Not after Common Core changes spelling to Liberal Grammar ahahah
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Apr 14, 2015 19:51
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Zeitgueist posted:It's fairly hilarious that you think that colonizing the stars is more realistic than full communism(an already far-fetched scenario). The problem with this smug rebuttal is that full communism is always an option no matter what we end up doing as a species. Unless scientific breakthroughs (and societal breakthroughs -- again, if we actually funded this properly and devoted resources and intelligent people to it, we'd be doing much better) are made, we're looking at a window of time in which humans can leave the Earth. When that window is closed, there's no reopening it.
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Apr 14, 2015 19:54
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Gentlemen, I propose Full Space Communism. Two unfeasible tastes that taste unfeasible together.
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Apr 14, 2015 19:56
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In which Chris Christie says, "gently caress it, I'm not getting elected anyway."quote:New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday sought to cast himself as an honest and unintimated leader by proposing major overhauls to key entitlement programs, a move that carries political risk for Republicans like Christie who are considering a presidential bid. The full document is here, and also includes similar changes to Medicare, making Medicaid into a per-capita grant to states, and also some stuff about DI. Looks like he's trying to posture himself as the adult in the room, but I can't see any cuts to these programs going over with seniors well. sexy fucking muskrat fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Apr 14, 2015 |
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Apr 14, 2015 20:01
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paranoid randroid posted:Gentlemen, I propose Full Space Communism. Two unfeasible tastes that taste unfeasible together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yMy7JuGpJM
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Apr 14, 2015 20:01
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Brannock posted:The problem with this smug rebuttal is that full communism is always an option no matter what we end up doing as a species. Unless scientific breakthroughs (and societal breakthroughs -- again, if we actually funded this properly and devoted resources and intelligent people to it, we'd be doing much better) are made, we're looking at a window of time in which humans can leave the Earth. When that window is closed, there's no reopening it. Oh nos, a smug rebuttal to your silly nerd fantasy of space colonization. Making life better for people on earth is something we can't even accomplish now, and the amount of money and resources you'd spend to build Foundation within the next 1000 years would almost certainly make life worse for everyone but the super rich because you think we're just a warp drive away from whatever Star Wars fantasy you have. You have a far better chance of geo-engineering the planet to solve climate change. Maybe someday space colonization will happen but seriously blathering about it right now when we don't even have a functional enough government to fix basic infrastructure is laughably obtuse.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:02
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Well if Tim Curry's on board, I don't see how this could possibly go wrong.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:03
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Mr Jaunts posted:In which Chris Christie says, "gently caress it, I'm not getting elected anyway." You're supposed to take entitlements away from
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Apr 14, 2015 20:04
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Mr Jaunts posted:In which Chris Christie says, "gently caress it, I'm not getting elected anyway." I'm glad that sack of poo poo imploded. I was actually terrified of him a few years ago since it seemed like sensible Democrats were in love with his moderate conservatism and I could see him getting elected. The gall to say that the average American has to face the hard truths while helping his friends profit is impressive. I hope his stomach band ruptures.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:10
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Mr Jaunts posted:In which Chris Christie says, "gently caress it, I'm not getting elected anyway." Joke's on him because I'm just planning on dying at my desk 
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Apr 14, 2015 20:11
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Humanity must colonize the stars or cease to exist. Well, more quickly anyway.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:12
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*Dozier voice* take me to space
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Apr 14, 2015 20:19
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Zeitgueist posted:Oh nos, a smug rebuttal to your silly nerd fantasy of space colonization. Something as paltry as doubling NASA funding would do wonders, but you heard it guys -- we can only choose between empty "help the poor" platitudes and actually ensuring that the species has a future instead of dying out impotently on Earth. It's not like the last space race had enormous technological breakthroughs that benefited life across all social strata or provided thousands of jobs! Bases on the Moon and perhaps Mars, extending the ISS program, getting out several more space stations are all very well within our reach right now, and would do an enormous amount for our security as a species. Looking at a fictional story and going "Well that's impossible" is myopic to the extreme, though I'm not surprised you've resorted to yet another strawman to dismiss an idea. Star Wars fantasy? Really now? We don't have a functional government because American society only exists right now to make people richer or enabling them to die trying to become rich. There's no societal goal whatsoever, why do you think people as a whole are apathetic about the utter destruction of American education or the crumbling infrastructure? Like this is a problem that runs through all spheres of American society, right up to our governance. Everyone in charge is busy trying to either tear down regulations or siphon money out of it because we barely have any idea what we should be doing other than a nebulous idea of "Make things better!" which clearly can be interpreted in a lot of ways that we'd rather it not be interpreted. There's no sense of unity or collective effort just an endless stream of "gently caress you got mine" or "gently caress you we want ours!" no matter how badly it'd affect everyone else.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:20
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Brannock posted:The problem with this smug rebuttal is that full communism is always an option no matter what we end up doing as a species. Unless scientific breakthroughs (and societal breakthroughs -- again, if we actually funded this properly and devoted resources and intelligent people to it, we'd be doing much better) are made, we're looking at a window of time in which humans can leave the Earth. When that window is closed, there's no reopening it. What, you think we'll implement full communism in a post-scarcity and/or post-singularity society? But seriously, I couldn't care less about humans leaving earth before the sun dies. The species will go extinct one way or another, accept it.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:21
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Stultus Maximus posted:What, you think we'll implement full communism in a post-scarcity and/or post-singularity society? How the gently caress else will we be able to deal with the first asteroid we mine producing more metals than all mining operations in the history of mankind? quote:But seriously, I couldn't care less about humans leaving earth before the sun dies. The species will go extinct one way or another, accept it. Yes, heat death of the universe is a bitch.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:24
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its really dumb to shoehorn humans into interstellar space when the far more logical thing to do is to create artifical life to carry on our legacy
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Apr 14, 2015 20:25
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Stultus Maximus posted:But seriously, I couldn't care less about humans leaving earth before the sun dies. The species will go extinct one way or another, accept it.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:25
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Popular Thug Drink posted:its really dumb to shoehorn humans into interstellar space when the far more logical thing to do is to create artifical life to carry on our legacy robots can't bang
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Apr 14, 2015 20:25
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A Winner is Jew posted:Yes, heat death of the universe is a bitch. Not gonna happen. I firmly believe in a big crunch.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:26
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we should start making clones and send them into space
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Apr 14, 2015 20:27
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Popular Thug Drink posted:its really dumb to shoehorn humans into interstellar space when the far more logical thing to do is to create artifical life to carry on our legacy Millenials?
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Apr 14, 2015 20:29
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Brannock posted:Something as paltry as doubling NASA funding would do wonders, but you heard it guys -- we can only choose between empty "help the poor" platitudes and actually ensuring that the species has a future instead of dying out impotently on Earth. It's not like the last space race had enormous technological breakthroughs that benefited life across all social strata or provided thousands of jobs! The moon is far less hospitable to human life than the most arid part of the Sahara Desert. Mars is less hospitable than the coldest part of Antarctica. The space program was good because of the high payoffs in technology and jobs, but talking about it as a way to help humanity survive a catastrophe within the next 100 years is absurd. If there's a crisis on Earth serious enough to threaten middle-class American food security, I guarantee that they'll stop bothering to import desperately needed food and other supplies to the moon. There are no plausible scenarios that would lead to the extinction of humanity. At worst, climate change could destroy so many ecosystems that it would drastically decrease Earth's carrying capacity, killing billions and returning society to a pre-industrial level, but the species would survive. There's no scenario where a moon base is somehow the thing that saves us from extinction.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:29
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PupsOfWar posted:robots can't bang Not yet.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:29
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The Democratic candidate is subpar this year and DnD immediately sinks into despair about the extinction of the human species? Jesus-loving-christ.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:33
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Anybody who is pro-space colonization needs to also be for actual solutions to climate change because the largest technological hurdle to space colonies is in our lack of ecological understanding making it impossible for us to manage a closed environmental system like a bernal sphere or a moonbase. This is also a major hurdle to our not destroying the earth so hey, synergy
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Apr 14, 2015 20:34
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tabris posted:The Democratic candidate is subpar this year and DnD immediately sinks into despair about the extinction of the human species? Jesus-loving-christ. It's because D&D is more misogynistic than republicans since they only think america will go extinct if Hillary wins.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:35
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I have an idea what both sides of this debate can agree on: a fleet of tiny mirrors that prevent some tiny percentage of sunlight from reaching the planet. There, you're welcome.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:37
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Munkeymon posted:I have an idea what both sides of this debate can agree on: a fleet of tiny mirrors that prevent some tiny percentage of sunlight from reaching the planet. That would have to be a shitload of mirrors, actually. And because space doesn't leave an efficient way to conduct away heat, over time they would heat up and start emitting heat towards Earth unless they were almost perfectly reflective.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:39
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Chamale posted:The moon is far less hospitable to human life than the most arid part of the Sahara Desert. Mars is less hospitable than the coldest part of Antarctica. The space program was good because of the high payoffs in technology and jobs, but talking about it as a way to help humanity survive a catastrophe within the next 100 years is absurd. If there's a crisis on Earth serious enough to threaten middle-class American food security, I guarantee that they'll stop bothering to import desperately needed food and other supplies to the moon. I think you're still framing this in a short-term view. Even a century is still short-term compared to the sheer impact of actually getting a foothold out in space on human history from thereon. I'd rather not go down in history as a member of a scant few generations that had the stars within our grasp and passed up on it. No, the first steps of space colonization won't prevent or ameliorate an extinction-level event, the point is that it's actually making progress towards something that would. There are no plausible short-term events that would extinguish humanity, but if we remain on Earth forever then the chances of one happening approaches certainty. The Moon and Mars are dead bodies, they can be altered to our wishes (at least if you aren't a Red) and, frankly, I'd rather we practice our geoengineering on dead planetary bodies than on Earth itself until we have it pretty well figured out. The alternative is either screwing up something and creating an even worse feedback loop or offering up some third world country as a sacrifice. I've hinted at this in previous posts, but I believe that having a concrete societal goal something along the lines of "Advance America into space" would do wonders for our society/culture. We've been coasting for the past several decades other than lashing out at countries that refuse to submit to American hegemony and the culture has become seriously threadbare. Why even exist as a country? There's no grand goal or plan that everyone can unite behind. "Full Communism" would qualify but the chances of that being espoused by America as a whole is remote especially when the very public failure of the USSR is still fresh in societal memory. It'd be an incredibly long-term project to massage public opinion into receptiveness. What if Obama came out tomorrow and announced Space Race II? UberJew posted:Anybody who is pro-space colonization needs to also be for actual solutions to climate change because the largest technological hurdle to space colonies is in our lack of ecological understanding making it impossible for us to manage a closed environmental system like a bernal sphere or a moonbase. Exactly, yeah.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:43
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tabris posted:The Democratic candidate is subpar this year and DnD immediately sinks into despair about the extinction of the human species? Jesus-loving-christ. DnD is always teetering at the brink of apocalyptic thought, it's quite tiring
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Apr 14, 2015 20:45
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Zelder posted:DnD is always teetering at the brink of apocalyptic thought, it's quite tiring Neo-LF Syndrome
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Apr 14, 2015 20:48
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Brannock posted:I think you're still framing this in a short-term view. Even a century is still short-term compared to the sheer impact of actually getting a foothold out in space on human history from thereon. I'd rather not go down in history as a member of a scant few generations that had the stars within our grasp and passed up on it. No, the first steps of space colonization won't prevent or ameliorate an extinction-level event, the point is that it's actually making progress towards something that would. There are no plausible short-term events that would extinguish humanity, but if we remain on Earth forever then the chances of one happening approaches certainty. I'm not saying we should never colonize space, I'm saying it's not a priority now, and there's no scenario where a move into space colonization now ends up saving us from extinction. Of course, I still think NASA should be expanded because of the great work it does in technology and science.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:50
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Brannock posted:The problem with this smug rebuttal is that full communism is always an option no matter what we end up doing as a species. Unless scientific breakthroughs (and societal breakthroughs -- again, if we actually funded this properly and devoted resources and intelligent people to it, we'd be doing much better) are made, we're looking at a window of time in which humans can leave the Earth. When that window is closed, there's no reopening it. Far more scientific and societal breakthroughs are required to have a sustainable population off the planet than we have now. Whatever "window" exists won't open until very far into the future. Your science fiction has vastly undersold how difficult space travel is to you, much less how inhospitable any living space is, and how intrinsic earth's biosphere to our survival on every level.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:53
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Chamale posted:That would have to be a shitload of mirrors, actually. And because space doesn't leave an efficient way to conduct away heat, over time they would heat up and start emitting heat towards Earth unless they were almost perfectly reflective. Yes it would be and you can just build that into the calculation that tells you how many mirrors you need. I'd guess it'd be a tiny increase because no matter what you're still getting rid of ~98% of the visible light energy and probably ~40% of the IR energy assuming you use Mylar.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:54
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ReidRansom posted:Not gonna happen. I firmly believe in a big crunch. Nope. You can trust me, I'm a cosmologist. Lambda's going to win.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:56
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Fried Chicken posted:Far more scientific and societal breakthroughs are required to have a sustainable population off the planet than we have now. Whatever "window" exists won't open until very far into the future. Yeah, any one saying we should start colonizing now is an idiot, but so is anyone saying we shouldn't be expanding the budget of NASA because we need to help the poor. Putting money into things like sustaining a closed ecosystem, zero-g production and mining, robotics, and even deep space telescopes and probes are things that we should absolutely be working on right now.
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Apr 14, 2015 20:59
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