Topic: Science
Articles on scientific topics.
Manned Space Exploration Is Bullshit
Posted in Tech
on April 21st, 2012 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Science Fiction,
Science,
Energy,
Space
What made me think about this was seeing Elon Musk interviewed on the Colbert Report the other week. He said that he wanted to get into "important problems", as he said later, "One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space," to quote Wikipedia, which is just about a direct quote of his comments on the show. Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, a private space exploration company, as well as Tesla Motors, makers of what is considered the world's first modern, commercially viable electric car. He made his fortune from PayPal. So he succeeded in having a foot in all three camps, but in choosing space exploration as the next place to focus his energy, I feel like he chose a vanity project over doing something really important. Space exploration is just not important to the future of humanity, and manned space exploration is just a gigantic waste.
The Limits of Climate Disaster
Posted in Unfounded Speculation
on February 27th, 2012 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Crystal Ball,
Science,
Energy,
Climate Change
The record will show that I am certainly not a climate change denier. However, I think that many scenarios of global warming make unwarranted assumptions about the rate of increase of green house gas levels in the atmosphere and hence don't paint a realistic picture of the future. A prime example of this genre, but by no means exceptional, is Under a Green Sky by Peter D.Ward, which I've just finished reading for the second time. I don't have any problem with the greenhouse extinction theory he describes, which is brilliant and convincing, but I have a problem with the way he extrapolates it into the future.
Natural Is Not Good
Posted in Unfounded Speculation
on October 31st, 2011 by
Stephen DeGrace
Topics:
Gay Stuff,
Science,
Politics
There is a series of articles I want to write on a variety of topics, if I ever get around to it, and they all sort of need this article as a basic underpinning. Rather than make the argument over and over, I would like to make it in one place and refer back to it. This point has been made by many other people many times before, but it seems to run very much counter to many popular ideologies, so it bears repeating: just because something is natural, doesn't make it good. A lot of natural things are bad, even evil. And a lot of unnatural things are good. Goodness itself is somewhat unnatural. Basing your ideology on arguments about what is natural and what isn't with the underlying subtext that natural is good is only setting yourself up for a fall as our knowledge about nature evolves.