Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ncoast.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!cwruecmp!atvax!ncoast!bsa From: bsa@ncoast.UUCP (The WITNESS) Newsgroups: net.columbia Subject: Re: Why Space? -- Your Answers Message-ID: <266@ncoast.UUCP> Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 15:01:10 EDT Article-I.D.: ncoast.266 Posted: Fri Aug 17 15:01:10 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 22-Aug-84 03:47:19 EDT References: <2035@pur-ee.UUCP> Organization: North Coast XENIX, Cleveland Lines: 31 [The world is a Klein bottle] I justify space in two major ways: (1) if Ragnarok (WWIII, the Nightfall War, etc.) ever occurs, we'll survive as a species; and (2) if we do NOT try, we are admitting that the universe is too much for us. Historically speaking, this is equivalent to racial suicide even without war -- we would stagnate into obli- vion. I will not accept this fate; I am a wolf, not a sheep (cf. BEYOND THIS HORIZON). Same author, different note: The afterword to "Spinoff" in EXPANDED UNIVERSE says this about funding attempts: "No, to most citizens of the United States the entire space program plus all its spinoffs is not worth even 5c per day; the polls (and letters to Congress) plainly show it. And they won't believe that 5c figure even if you do the arith- metic right in front of their eyes. They will still think of it as 'all that money' being 'wasted' on 'a few rocks'." Sometimes I grow weary of public ignorance. It takes a dream to escape this; perhaps this explains the popularity of the biggest argument I know for space exploration, dating from September 8, 1966: an argument that begins with the phrase "SPACE: The Final Frontier"... --bsa -- Brandon Allbery: decvax!cwruecmp{!atvax}!ncoast!bsa: R0176@CSUOHIO.BITNET ^ Note name change! 6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, OH 44131 <> (216) 524-1416 "The more they overthink the plumbin', the easier 'tis tae stop up the drain."