From: daniel patrick duffy 
Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if
Subject: Re: The Economics of De-Population (long)
Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 21:54:59 -0500

Miles R. Fidelman wrote:

daniel patrick duffy wrote:

In its mystical aspect Apollo embodied the spirit of its age. Every so often in history, a civilization rises up and uses its accumulated economic surplus to create something which has no practical value (from a bean counter's point of view) yet is absolutely essential to the morale and spirit of its people. The Egyptian pyramids and Gothic cathedrals are two examples. The Saturn V rocket in many ways was our Notre Dame or St. Peter's. IMHO we have lately become so mono-fixated on economics that we have forgotten that it is the intangibles which make a civilization great. "Without a vision, the people perish" - I believe both secular humanists and devout theists can agree on that.

I sometimes think that pursuing a vision is necessary, and therefore "practical" for a society to survive. Without a challenge to push us forward, we seem to lapse into mediocrity.

I sort of miss the cold war for the same reasons I miss the Apollo program. Since neither side was crazy enough to actually risk a nuclear war, we ended up competing in lots of other areas - the space race, technology, arts, sports, etc. It's sort of sad to see all the neat technological capabilities both sides developed getting sidelined - in our case into infotainment technology, in the Russians case with former nuclear physicists driving cabs.

We need a new challenge. Invaders from space perhaps?

Miles

If we assume that ideologies of both the left and the right are dead and gone (having been discredited by the Nazis and Communists in the last century); and further assume that Fukayama is right and democratic capitalism is the "final society", then I doubt if we will ever make a major push into space for purely material reasons. There is just no financial, scientific or defense justification for a large sustained human presence in space. Defensive spy sats, weather and comsats, robot planetary rovers and orbital probes do the job just fine. No human need apply. From a purely "bean counter" point of view, even the international space station is a white elephant.

Fortunately life isn't about bean counting, or even solely about maximizing profit. The spirit, �lan and morale of a society are at least as important as its material wealth, perhaps more important ("Morale is to material as 3 is to 1", Napoleon - true in society as well as on the battlefield). Apollo was primarily about non material things like national pride, prestige and patriotism. However as the world becomes closer and borders blur, such chest thumping patriotism has gone out of fashion, and won't provide the impetus for further efforts in space.

I made the comparison between the Saturn V rocket and the Gothic cathedrals or Egyptian pyramids. I think that is an apt analogy. Perhaps, just perhaps, religious faith might provide the necessary spark for a renewed effort in space - and not just because many Apollo astronauts experienced a profound religious awakening while in space and on the moon. So why not a "faith based" space program? How about founding another "shining city on a hill", this time on the Moon. Why not "touch the face of God" from orbit? How about a "new Jerusalem" on Mars, free from the corruption and immorality of the Old World?

As crazy as this may sound, we made need to harness the same motivation which built the cathedrals and pyramids to send us back into space.

Best regards,

Dan Duffy

P.S. At the very least, I hope to score points here for original thinking. ;-)