Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (9673)	3/8/2004 12:39:30 AM
From: t4texas	Respond to of 110194

it seems to me mars may be the only technology/engineering sort-of full employment possibility the usa will have for a long time. if we are seeking ricardo-like comparative advantage, mars-related stuff may be it for the usa. to me it seems everything else on earth is seeking the lowest cost development and production. when townes (i think it was townes) invented the laser, i imagine he hoped it would not be used for weapons. even though lasers facilitate the best weapons there are today, lasers are so helpful in so many fields that i don't think anyone, other than some luddites and troglodytes, would wish lasers did not exist. lasers have saved and improved far more lives than they have facilitated the taking of. (we would still be working with vinyl records if it weren't for lasers, and kids would still be listening to tapes :-). manufacturing as we know it today would be impossible, etc., etc., etc.) i am sure a mars program would produce amazing things, but it does not look like it will get traction until/unless things get much worse in the us economy. just think of the suspended animation research for those long space flights that would happen with the mars program. i can think of an application for that right off the top of my head, i.e., more precise population planning to save social security :-) . they could put some people "on ice" for a while who are in those population bubbles and bring them back many years later when they are needed to work and pay fica for those bubble populations who have retired. :-) i am sure there would be lots of other good technologies coming out of a mars program.