{"id":995,"date":"2007-08-03T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2007-08-03T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/?p=995"},"modified":"2011-08-21T08:25:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T08:25:14","slug":"blinded-with-science-trekonomic-incentives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/?p=995","title":{"rendered":"Blinded with Science – Trekonomic Incentives"},"content":{"rendered":"

*originally printed in Red Shtick Magazine – August, 2007<\/a> (pdf<\/a>)<\/p>\n

There was a commercial once where the guy who wascaptain of the space station on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine\u00a0said, “I want my flying cars.” He was talking about why we hadn’t moved further technologically than we had at that\u00a0time. He sounded serious, but it was because he was being\u00a0paid to sell credit cards or insurance or something.<\/p>\n

I don’t want credit cards, insurance, or flying cars. I’ll tell\u00a0you what I want, Captain: I want that damn space station.<\/p>\n

We went to the moon before half the people reading this\u00a0were born. That’s right, folks: believe it or not, we went\u00a0there. We walked all over that bald, bucktooth cousin of ours\u00a0and showed it what city folk can do out in the country. We\u00a0figured out that it was cold on one side, hot on the other, and really dusty.<\/p>\n

We learned in the process. We learned about the universe\u00a0and surviving in space and whatnot. We united the human\u00a0race in purpose for a singular moment in history. It was a\u00a0pretty good ride. After about five years, we went back home for good. That’s the story of our farthest manned exploration of the cosmos. That was nearly 40 years ago.<\/p>\n

It took us about 40 years to get from E = mc2 to Hiroshima. It only took about six years once we really got started on the bomb. Later that century, it took us about 20 years to go\u00a0from DOS 3.1 to the Xbox\u2122. During that time of vital\u00a0development, we flew the exact same space shuttles. The\u00a0time from the inception of the Mercury program to the\u00a0conclusion of the Apollo program spanned about 15 years; that’s about the same amount of time between our wars in\u00a0the Middle East. We can do a lot in a short time if we have\u00a0the incentive.<\/p>\n

The lessons of history teach us that our efforts are most\u00a0united by two things: war and money. The past 40 in\u00a0particular have taught us that technological advances come\u00a0from the same incentives. Since we cannot count on an alien attack, if we wish to explore space, we must find money in\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

Making space exploration a public priority isn’t an easy sell,\u00a0because there is little incentive. It takes a great deal of\u00a0imagination to think of space exploration as a benefit to\u00a0humanity. It doesn’t really seem to benefit anybody except \u00a0the guy in the spacesuit floating around out there, and he\u00a0could be out drinking if it wasn’t for the stupid mission.<\/p>\n

Space exploration would be a hard political platform to run\u00a0on, and as an issue, it’s special-interest at best. Guys in\u00a0spacesuits who’d rather be drinking don’t even constitute a\u00a0special-interest group. Politicians have learned to stay away\u00a0from space issues as a talking point, because other than the occasional mention of a mission to Mars, it sounds a little\u00a0frivolous and kooky.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, anything that is of benefit to humanity as a\u00a0whole can be seen as a threat to national security. Politicians\u00a0focus on running the government, and that takes money.\u00a0Politicians spend our money to make more money to be sure\u00a0we have money to run the government and make more\u00a0money\u2026for the economy, of course.<\/p>\n

Many believe that NASA has been a drain on the economy\u00a0since its first mission. Only a few, really nerdy people derive\u00a0any satisfaction from the pursuits of this agency. The gains\u00a0from the space program are outweighed by the fact that it\u00a0costs us valuable tax dollars that could be better spent on defense contracts, campaigning, political favors, outright\u00a0bribes, and other expenses that grease the wheels of\u00a0democracy.<\/p>\n

NASA also creates problems, such as the knowledge that\u00a0huge meteors and comets might someday destroy human life\u00a0on earth. This knowledge is counterproductive to economic\u00a0growth, because it is a threat to security that cannot be \u00a0shocked and awed into submission. These abstract fears are\u00a0not conducive to the political process.<\/p>\n

Any political group who worries too much about a cosmic\u00a0apocalypse might as well get tinfoil hats and hang out with\u00a0L. Ron Hubbard’s crew. God is in charge of the apocalypse,\u00a0and if He wants us to prevent it, He will provide the economic incentive to do so.<\/p>\n

The Ansari X Prize was a boon to space exploration, because it gave us a tangible incentive to think about space:\u00a0money. Financial incentives were offered, and we achieved\u00a0more in space than we could ever have hoped with socialist\u00a0ideas of exploration for the benefit of science.<\/p>\n

In 2004, SpaceShipOne was launched in low orbit and\u00a0claimed victory for all mankind. For this achievement, some\u00a0rich guy claimed the $10-million prize. Nearly $100 million\u00a0was invested in research towards this goal.<\/p>\n

The Vostok 1, piloted by Yuri Gagarin, completed the same\u00a0feat in 1961, but Yuri didn’t win $10 million, and the research was done by commies, so it didn’t benefit their economy. It took only 43 years for us to find the means to\u00a0promote space exploration with direct capitalist incentives.<\/p>\n

Science observes that space and time may be infinite, and\u00a0so, the universe may contain infinite means for human\u00a0survival within it. There is a hidden danger in this\u00a0interpretation. To regard the universe itself as an infinite\u00a0material and scientific resource simply violates the principles\u00a0of supply and demand. We need demand to run the\u00a0economy, and with an infinite supply of anything, we lose all\u00a0demand and the economy crashes.<\/p>\n

We must set limits on ourselves regarding space exploration.\u00a0If we do not, we may find ourselves exploring space with no\u00a0money to spend once we find somewhere that will take a\u00a0Visa.<\/p>\n

Commercializing space travel allows us to pursue spaceborne\u00a0technologies with a mind towards concise goals. Goals like\u00a0getting me that damn space station. Government-funded\u00a0research and other socialist abominations can lend themselves to wasteful and frivolous studies not pursuant to\u00a0economic goals. Commercial space travel will allow us to\u00a0harness the infinite cosmos to sell more expensive vacation\u00a0packages and support vast service industries that will fuel our economy.<\/p>\n

It may also provide us raw materials and scientific data, but\u00a0any available resource will be properly fought over to\u00a0establish ownership. These future wars and conflicts over\u00a0resources in space will give us new technologies to go\u00a0deeper into the universe to seek more and more wealth to fight over.<\/p>\n

I want that space station, and I’d join the Federation or the\u00a0Alliance or the freaking Empire to get it. I want that space\u00a0station because I want to see the universe and hire really\u00a0smart people to go study all of it and tell me what it’s all \u00a0about. I think a space station out in the Gamma Quadrant\u00a0would be a good start.<\/p>\n

I’d need money to run the space station and hire all those\u00a0smart people. Fortunately, a space station is also a great\u00a0source of revenue from tourism, commerce, and people\u00a0paying to not be exposed to the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n

To provide even more economic incentive for space\u00a0exploration, I present the Gimme Space Station U Prize. The\u00a0winner will be the first person to get me that space station,\u00a0and the prize will be $50 in MySpaceStation Bucks and a gift certificate to not be exposed to the vacuum of space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*originally printed in Red Shtick Magazine – August, 2007 (pdf) There was a commercial once where the guy who wascaptain of the space station on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine\u00a0said, “I want my flying cars.” He was talking about why we hadn’t moved further technologically than we had at that\u00a0time. He sounded serious, but it […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/funkboxing.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}