From: Chris Fedeli (fedeli@email.msn.com)
Date: Sun Jul 18 1999 - 11:22:01 MDT
Greg Burch wrote:
>Is this latter mission for ISS really viable in
>the time before, say, 2025 or so? I know
>there's been quite a bit of talk lately about
>"space tourism", but I'm skeptical of this as
>a viable economic development within the next
>25 years (after a fairly advanced nanotechnology
>is developed, yes). I'd be especially curious to
>hear the thoughts of younger folks who may well
>not be infected so strongly with the "space station
>meme".
I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm 25, and most of
my generation seems to share little enthusiasm for space
travel. I think part of this comes from the increased
knowledge we have about our universe today. 30 years ago
many people still thought there might be intelligent life on
mars. Now we've used our telescopes to explore the deep
reaches of space and have found it to be incredibly vast and
. . . boring.
The final frontier for the post-October Sky generation is
the mind, not space. Neuroscience, psychology, AI and the
like are the fields that capture the imaginations of the
adventurors who want to explore unknown territory. The
computer and psychaitry industries are already worth
billions of dollars with tremendous growth prospects.
Economically I'd rate these areas of enterprise as far more
viable than space travel, as well as more important. From a
social welfare perspective, nano and biotech should probably
be a higher priority than space exploration.
Chris Fedeli
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