This week, I learned the first sentence of my title. Today, I saw this article:
https://science.slashdot.org/story/17/07/31/0420212/luxembourg-just-passed-a-new-asteroid-mining-law
The things we see above us are lights in the sky, not places we can get to! I know I'm in the minority, here.
I sense we're near the end of our empire as well.
Okay... imagine for a minute that I was Bezos and all of my stock money was real money.
I take my billions of dollars and I build a complete moon station. I have billions left, because I'm a private person and not a government entity that likes to waste money. So, I next build a mining route from the moon to the asteroid belt. There is a 30 day window for me to retrieve any mined material each year, so, I also build a storage platform near the asteroid belt, which waits to be sent back to the moon. Again, since I am a private entity, I am able to do this quick and on budget. After I get my first 10,000 tons of asteroid gold shipped back to the moon, which will basically double my net worth. I move on to the next billion of the $700 quintillion in metals in the belt.
What government would be able to enforce any law made on Earth for what I did in space? If I can mine an asteroid, I can probably move enough rock to send one to flatten any city on the planet.
If I can mine enough metals, like titanium, I could build an entire space fleet.
Seriously, which country would be able to stand on their tiny mole hill and proclaim that they own the right to the stars?
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Makes sense, and that it is not being done seems odd. Of course, that's assuming that space exists, which I have no evidence of. Which is why I juxtaposed that we're "making claims on the lights in the sky" as being similar to ancient Romans near the end of their empire arguing over the gender of angels.
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USA or Russia or China or North Korea or Iran... should I continue?
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Really? Tell me about the Chinese or Russian moon bases?
Who is trying to put people on Mars? A private company or a government?
The USA has already passed a law that says "what you mine is yours" for asteroid mining. But, still, they currently have better success outsourcing rocket launches. Private industry supplies the space station and launches satellites.
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Look at Russia claiming the arctic, China building islands in the South China Sea, USA in Iraq, the British Empire, the Spanish Conquestadors, it's just what countries do they expand to grab resources. Treaties now look good and mean nothing because none of it is feasible but when the technology advances the powers that be will stake a claim it's just human nature. By the way, China is planning a moon base.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/26/chinese-and-european-space-agencies-in-talks-to-build-a-moon-base/
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So... basically you just proved my point by showing that countries don't even abide by treaties on the planet, let alone off the planet?
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deanlogic! Have a great day!
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That is gonna take so much money, resources and risk. NASA can't even build reliable space shuttle up to this time, how can they ever mine in the space? :)
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I don't think NASA builds anything, other than virtual reality shows.
Also, regarding "mining in space" -- have we ever demonstrated that a separation can be maintained between an area under vacuum, and another area which isn't, without a physical barrier between them?
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hahaha. I can only imagine astronauts wrestle with the rock
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Asteroid mining ? What the fuck..
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I know right? Are asteroids even real?
I.e., Can they be seen by amateur astronomers, or only the high priests at NASA?
If there's no way to reproduce an experiment, then you're following "scientism", not science. Science is based on repeatable experimentation. Can't repeat? Not science.
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We better invest in this new coin (astero coin).
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At the end of the Roman Empire the powers that be were providing "Bread & Circuses" to the people so they would not realize their economy, and whole empire as a result, was crumbling before their eyes. And so there was state sponsored meals available, and greater and greater distractions to obsess over -- like the gladiator games, races, and chariot battles...
The similiarity with today is alarming... food stamps, riots, social unrest and manufactured divisiveness -- order a pizza, turn on CNN and start impotently yelling at the tv screen -- that oughta' do it...
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Yes, I have pondered "bread and circuses" for several years, especially so since 2008.
Ringling Brothers, a circus, just closed a couple months ago. I remember going to that as a kid, perhaps only once though. Funny that it has closed; seems the only circuses that can survive near the end of an empire, are state-provided ones.
The federal government owns almost 85% of Nevada. And, they own about 26% of all state lands. They're not supposed to own any land, other than the "10 miles square" near Maryland (DC). But with so much ownership, they can put on "circuses" for the populace, via national parks et al, which I maintain should not exist.
I remembered a store named "Bread and Circus" and looked it up; turns out the founder died a few years back, and the store is long gone.
Interestingly, though, the store was in Brookline -- and Jonathan Coulton (who I've been listening to a lot lately, and writing about here in posts and comments) wrote a song about that town:
Enjoy! :)
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