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Sep. 10th, 2006
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Sep. 10th, 2006 04:38 amAtlantis, STS-115, is up in orbit, on a mission to the ISS for construction:
It's good to see us get back out to space. What a shame we can't just cancel the needless destruction in the Middle East, and recoup 25% of its costs for something as useful, productive, and wonderful as exploration and (yes, I know, there are dissenters) colonization.
This week also marked the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek. I didn't get a chance to watch the TOS marathon, but with all the posts about it and the anniversary, I got to thinking about where we are, and are not, relative to that world.
We're still not out in space on any viable permanent basis. If a global disaster occurs, it's a good bet to be the end, or a severe setback, for the entire race. [In ST, we've colonized some number of worlds and are working to colonize more. Granted, there are real-estate conflicts and wars with other races -- still, good examples of peaceful resolution abound in ST. And a few not-so-good ones, too.]
Speaking of race, we've made some progress in integrating the human race's subdivisions. But there's still substantial hatred, distrust, and misinformation by each segment about each other. The good news is that, having established a baseline of unacceptable behavior, there's now a large segment of the population that takes the haters to task and is working to improve the situation. Perhaps in time, we'll get there. [In ST, of course, there's no racism, except as necessary to make a point; c.f., Gorshin, Frank.]
Women are still, in too many ways, second-class citizens in the US. We won't even go into the disaster for them that is sharia, which holds in vast swathes of the world. [In ST, women were shown as having somewhat more equality than in the then-current Real World. This expanded greatly with each additional series through Voyager; by DS9, for sure, women were shown as on a more or less equal footing with men, holding positions of political and military authority, as well as scientific and strategic expertise. Though I forget whether they ever had a female shopkeeper as clever (?) as Quark :-) ]
There's no world (much less multiworld) government. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But such authority as there is, is too often flouted by national governments, starting with the idiots currently inhabiting the US White House and Congress. That is generally a bad thing. [ST, of course, has the Federation, which acts as a multiworld federal government, with local member governments being the equivalent of our state govs. Again, not always perfect -- but not a bad goal, and an order of magnitude better than what we have now.]
Atlantis’ arrival at the station will signal the resumption of on-orbit construction with the delivery of the P3/P4 truss segment and a new set of solar arrays. The STS-115 crew will conduct three spacewalks to install and prepare the truss and arrays for operation.
It's good to see us get back out to space. What a shame we can't just cancel the needless destruction in the Middle East, and recoup 25% of its costs for something as useful, productive, and wonderful as exploration and (yes, I know, there are dissenters) colonization.
This week also marked the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek. I didn't get a chance to watch the TOS marathon, but with all the posts about it and the anniversary, I got to thinking about where we are, and are not, relative to that world.
We're still not out in space on any viable permanent basis. If a global disaster occurs, it's a good bet to be the end, or a severe setback, for the entire race. [In ST, we've colonized some number of worlds and are working to colonize more. Granted, there are real-estate conflicts and wars with other races -- still, good examples of peaceful resolution abound in ST. And a few not-so-good ones, too.]
Speaking of race, we've made some progress in integrating the human race's subdivisions. But there's still substantial hatred, distrust, and misinformation by each segment about each other. The good news is that, having established a baseline of unacceptable behavior, there's now a large segment of the population that takes the haters to task and is working to improve the situation. Perhaps in time, we'll get there. [In ST, of course, there's no racism, except as necessary to make a point; c.f., Gorshin, Frank.]
Women are still, in too many ways, second-class citizens in the US. We won't even go into the disaster for them that is sharia, which holds in vast swathes of the world. [In ST, women were shown as having somewhat more equality than in the then-current Real World. This expanded greatly with each additional series through Voyager; by DS9, for sure, women were shown as on a more or less equal footing with men, holding positions of political and military authority, as well as scientific and strategic expertise. Though I forget whether they ever had a female shopkeeper as clever (?) as Quark :-) ]
There's no world (much less multiworld) government. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But such authority as there is, is too often flouted by national governments, starting with the idiots currently inhabiting the US White House and Congress. That is generally a bad thing. [ST, of course, has the Federation, which acts as a multiworld federal government, with local member governments being the equivalent of our state govs. Again, not always perfect -- but not a bad goal, and an order of magnitude better than what we have now.]
For those who (like me) haven't yet seen all of Penn & Teller's Bullshit, here are links to 23 episodes at Google Video. [Note: Showtime apparently dislikes non-US access to this page. Contact them with complaints; please don't tell me. Thanks]
Oh, and if you haven't seen it...see it :-)
Oh, and if you haven't seen it...see it :-)