[X] My Assistant

[pbangarth]

Don't limit yourself to the kind of achievements previous generations thought were important. Sure, a big war was won by the last generation, but this generation has bucked the trend and hasn't had a world war. That IS worth something. World leaders (eg. Canadian Prime Minister, U.S. President) have earned Nobel Peace Prizes. World leaders used to be warmongering megalomaniacs. (OK, so maybe those nations are backtracking a bit, but still.) There is a world court to adjudicate crimes against humanity. Imagine that... worldwide recognition of a higher set of principles than national self-interest.

Science? My step-son is applying Kantian philosophy to reconfigure quantum theory. Beats me, but that's gotta be worth something! And we're ON Mars, without risking a single human life. And we've found water there.

I'm sure those in the know could find many more examples. Great ones came before us, and we stand on their shoulders to reach even higher.

Peter

[DocTaotsu]

BOO not risking human life! BOO! I don't want ROBOTS on Mars /I/ want to be on Mars, I want to freeze my ass off humping up Mt. Olympus and dig through that red sand with my own two paws! There's water on Mars and by goddamn I want to drink it!
That said I am pleased we've managed to put very functional drones on Mars. I'm pleased at the results we've come back with but I recognize that the bigger problem is no one seems to care except for me and three other science nutjobs who grew up on a steady diet of Robert A. Heinlein and C. Clarke.

Totally unrelated story: My good buddy who's from Sri Lanka actually played ping-pong with Clarke. That's fucking awesome.


I'd also point out that America (And I think a number of other "big" countries") don't belong to the World Court for various reasons. Seeing at what a cluster the UN can be I'm not at all surprised (although it would be grand if such a court could exist, could be fair, and could in fact bring us a bit of peace). While I'd normally be supportive, conceptually, of a world court, the reality of the UN makes me learey to say the least. We are talking about an organization that thought it might be a good idea to put Iran in charge of the committee of human rights.

*shrugs*

We've skipped out on a World War and that is something to be proud of. We've also stood by and done very little about some of the worst atrocities, in scale and in terribleness, that humanity has ever endured.

Great generations have come before us but I sometimes wonder if we squander their gift. It's my own prejudice showing through but I can't help feel like we'd be better off if we'd stop looking at the top of our shoes and start looking ahead.

[Dumori]

One problem sientificly is that really the big discoverys arnt thire to be made so its all these little steps left to do things that outside the science don't mean squat to Mr. man on street. Its unlikely that huge things will happen in physics at least not for a few years. In fact IIRC it more likely that a huge theory will be proved wrong that a new one discovered. This paning out might not be panning out who knows if some tiny thing today could end up fueling some thing huge in 10-20 years. Then we'll look back at (I don't know glowing rats) and go see that's why we can have X and Y. Really I don't think that some of the big idea 30 years ago where big then.

Science? My step-son is applying Kantian philosophy to reconfigure quantum theory. Beats me, but that's gotta be worth something!

Im unshure what Kantian philosophy is but quantum theory is just a bit messy atm but it's unlikely work in that filed will effect the common man soon. It will affect me his its proven right as I'll learn about it in 2-ish years in my degree. Really working out what we have done is quite a hard thing to think of. Though computing has come on a lot in the last 30 years.

[MYST1C]

Im unshure what Kantian philosophy is

Immanuel Kant

Post #666! \m/