The height of their society peaked in 1969. They used militarism and socialism to put two guys on the Moon, they trotted out their public-private partnership (Concorde) to build exclusive supersonic transport for the rich. Max Faget and some other brilliant engineers designed a space shuttle fleet of ten vehicles capable of hundreds of flights a year to make access to low Earth orbit cheap and routine. And the Advanced Research Projects Agency had some geeks create an inter-networking protocol that could survive a nuclear war.
Obviously, they shot their wad, as it were, and no longer put guys on the Moon. They no longer fly supersonic transports. Their space shuttle is going to stop flying soon, if it hasn’t already. Those geeky guys went on to develop open source cryptography, open source software, and totally private economic transactions. The future we’re creating is going to be very, dramatically different. It is going to be decentralised to a fare thee well.
Right now, today, two people anywhere in the world *can* have a totally private economic exchange that cannot be detected by anyone else. And since it cannot be detected, it cannot be regulated, it cannot be prohibited, and it cannot be taxed. Even inflation cannot tax it, if the exchange is denominated in some money like silver or gold. Which means that those who dream of ruling the world sowed the seeds of their own damnation?
Jim Davidson, “Peak Culture”, Libertarian Enterprise, 2010-08-22
August 23, 2010
QotD: Peak Culture
July 24, 2009
Photo tour of the USS Hornet
I’ve been onboard several retired battleships, but so far I’ve not managed to get onto an aircraft carrier. This will have to do for the time being:
The USS Hornet was on hand 40 years ago to pick up the Apollo 11 astronauts after their Columbia Command Module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.
Today, the aircraft carrier is preserved as a museum in Alameda, California. Its main deck is littered with historic warplanes and space artifacts including an Apollo command module and Mobile Quarantine Facility from subsequent missions, pictured below. The first footsteps the Apollo 11 crew took on Earth after walking on the moon are traced on the deck.
USS Hornet CIC
Above: The USS Hornet’s Crisis Information Center is pictured. While engaged in active warfare, crewmembers would stand behind transparent, hanging boards and write information backwards to keep from getting in the way of the officers who needed to read it.
I think it was actually the “Combat” Information Center, but I could be mistaken. Lots of cool images, but I’d like to see more . . .
July 23, 2009
Realizing Heinlein’s “The Man Who Sold the Moon”
Unlike in the original story, this isn’t going to be just a ploy to get advertisers to help fund the first moon shot:
“If you’re interested, the logo of your choice could go lunar for as little as the minimum $46,000 bid. (Hurry! Bidding started two days ago.)”
Update, 24 July: For a very interesting discussion of the Apollo program, and the design choices taken, see Charles Stross’s blog post. Good stuff (even if I’m way late in linking to it).
July 14, 2009
Random links of possible interest
Just a few links to provide you with click-therapy:
- China decides that electro-shock therapy isn’t appropriate for treating “internet addiction”. No word on whether they’ve invested in Tasers instead.
- Simona Halep ignores an online petition and decides to promote her sports career over the interests of thousand of pasty internet geeks.
- Apollo 11 experience recreated on the web.
- I can’t possibly improve on this article’s title: Pic of the Day (Mid-1930s’ Edition): Economic Suicide Girls Get Tattooed For the NRA!
Sure hope those were temporary tattoos!
- Tim Cavanaugh fisks Timothy Geithner.
- Auto Czar abdicates.
- An over-the-top analysis of why there is a Gender Gap among American voters (link via Gerard Van der Leun).
- Survey shows that one in six people too dumb to be allowed out on the internet by themselves.
(Cross-posted to the old blog, http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/005579.html.)
