For people don't think we need the military or space programs

reply to post by Truth1000


You are very correct. And i think this is (at least partly) due to the american business model where everything must be as profitable as possible, no matter what! (for as long as i am the CEO, who cares after that)

You can do what is good for you, or what is good for everyone. The greedyer you are, the more you hurt the company.

The problem is we suffer under a, as you put it, "schizophrenic" 2 party system that's only interested in retaining power rather than doing what is best for the nation. Things like defense and space programs should be immune to politics. Granted I will be slammed over that remark with MIC, however it is my belief. That being said, NASA may well be the civilian face of our space program, however the USAF and Naval Intel have a far better program under it's control. Which is the way it should be in this environment.

reply to post by Spacedman13


Really? We better plan ahead for that collision of galaxies! Unless your going to live to 3 billion years old, it doesnt matter what happens that far in the future. We cant even solve an oil leak 5000 feet below the surface of the ocean. What makes you think that humanity can save itself by blasting off into outer space?

reply to post by CornerTech


My reply was more in the intend of a sarcastic joke, rather then real observation on the subject. Space programs are essential to the survival of our species if we intend to allow further generations to live on. Seing as our ecosystem is so fragile it can be destroyed by the flash of the sun, or a simple rock from outer space. It is vital that we try to search for other habitable planets and further our studies in spaceflight.

It´s just plain silly to think that one would reach 3 billion years old, in wich you should have understood that my message was a joke rather then a statement wich had any meaning with the issue the op was stating.

Sometimes a issue like this that is needs a sarcastic joke to lighten up the moods of people, you should have just choosed to ignore it rather then actually thinking that this was my actual statement regarding the subject.

I was actually considering replying to , "yes im going to live for a infinate time, as i discoverd the fountain of youth" but seing as im afraid of your responce i decided to put this in context for you.

If we do not explore and try to expand our human race. We might aswell just give up now turn on the tellie and idolise the words. "Ignorance is blizz"

War, war never changes.

I understand your statement, because the human tendency toward was is unchanged, even as our level of knowledge increases.

What does change, however, is the technology. These technology changes affect more than simple tactics, however. When the crossbow was first invented, it was felt to be so devastating that there were strong efforts to have it made illegal to possess. When Nobel created high explosives, in the form of TNT primarily, it was felt that this would make warfare so dangerous that it would be too damaging to continue. As always, regardless of the danger, some method of including those weapons into the mainstream of combat tactics have always been found.

With our new technologies, they are being created for the purpose of defeating our enemies and killing those who oppose us. For this reason, we should be concerned with what technologies we are creating as a nation.

Even with this warning noted, it is these same technologies that will determine the civilian technology for the coming decades.

i think war is an offshoot of our old evolutionary process that originally what was different from us could kill and eat us so we are inherently driven by our primal instincts no matter how farther we evolve or progress twords a Utopian civilization these evolutionary traits still drive us weather we want to or not

in my opinion war between humans wont stop until we find something that unifies us or scares us more then we do our selves

and as a side note no insult intended but people saying animals don't have war are wrong look at the following examples(ill post links when i stop pukeing from my hang over)

army ants wage war against other ants termites and ants fight over resources Japanese hornets wage war on honey bees and enslave the larva as food

dolphins will kidnap and rape porpoises and keep them from going back to there own pod,chimps will wage war against other tribes of chimps by killing off the males and captureing the females of those tribes and useing them as breeding stock

Lions will kill off cheetahs cubs for the sole purpose of cutting competition for food sounds a lot like the resource wars we do i could go on and on and on but i don't think that would do any thing else

few examples of what technology has done for us from war

microwaves,PLASTICS,advanced metallurgy,NUCLEAR POWER for good or evil is here to stay and one of our currently best methods at this time for trying to get out in space and get off this little blue rock,natural gas refining which with out we wouldn't be able to live in as many cold climates or we would still be clear cutting forests to burn in our fireplaces to keep warm
mechanized and gas powered vehicles which with out we couldn't even live in half the places we do or at least have a whole helluva lot more trouble feeding our selves or even be able to harvest the large fields we now use again i could go on and on but the OP had it right we may hate war and dislike its side effects but it still has advanced our society for good or bad

sorry for the lack of sentence structure and punctuation its been one of my weaknesses but i still think i raised vaild points

anyone? buler......buler buler.....? can any one provide examples of 100% bad results of technology thats come from war? any one ? or of completely peacefull animals insects that dont kill ANYTHING organic or alive?mayby earth worms

[edit on 10-7-2010 by KilrathiLG]

reply to post by Truth1000


Whose to say that if tens of billions weren't spent on military R&D, those tens of billions wouldn't have been spent on civilian R&D?

Perhaps we would not be at the stage we are at now, but be further advanced technologically..

military and space and two different discussions completely, while space programs are the only things than can only give us space based technologies any sector could give us what militaries gave us. They say military have our technology 25 to 40 years before we get it, damn shame if you ask me that we rely on military to excel the tools and entertainment we are given.