Into that silent sea.

[fabricati_diem]

Ok, I'm going to start this one off with a little quiz. Answers on the back of a £20 note please.

Off the top of your head, name for me the following (Using Wikipedia is cheating):

1. The first man in space.
2. The first American in space.
3. The first man on the moon.
4. The fourth man on the moon.
5. The last man on the moon.

Comments

[malvino]

I could not care less about the space program and got none right (expect maybe Yuri Gagarin and Armstrong, if they're right).

This is in no small part due to the fact that had the money been spent on eradicating poverty globally and ensuring universal primary education (which it could have, about 12 times over), and access to further education on merit (as in the UNited Nations declaration of human rights). If his were achieved the world would be much better off now, and with many more educated people around from which to draw scientists to explore space, and with much more wealth with which to fund that research.

[fabricati_diem]

The space program provided a focus for the scientists and engineers that were around at the time, as well as providing a foundation for anything that we're doing today.

Aside from that, I have no problem with the idea that "if" the money had been spent differently, the world would have been a better place.

The thing is, you can wait around for the "right" opportunity to spend the money. But would it be today, next year, next decade?

In 1959 they had the money and the opportunity and decided to do something with it. It might have been a mistake to spend it on what they did, but personally I don't think we did too badly out of it.

[malvino]

I don't think it's a question of waiting, because that implies a time limit. I think it's a question of achieving one goal, then going on to another. Since education is an integral part of the eradication of poverty, our primary goal should be universal primary education. It could happen virtually overnight if the funding was there.

I'm not convinced that the space race has yielded any tangible benefit to us yet, and probably won't for several centuries, by which perspective three or 4 decades either way won't have mattered at all. There have been no breakthroughs in medicine or communications that could not have happened without looking to the stars. If we had had the same social progress since 1950 but no technological advancement we would arguably have a better standard of living than we do now, in our disposible, consumer world (that the "benefits" of technology allow).