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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talked about his vision for Blue Origin and humanity at the Apollo 11 Gala at Kennedy Space Center:
For Bezos, colonising space is a more a simple necessity for continued life on Earth. The compound effect of the incremental increase in energy requirements will mean us having to cover every inch of Earth in solar cells, he said, while the solar system offers virtually unlimited energy resources.
"We can harvest resources from asteroids, from Near-Earth Objects, and harvest solar energy from a much broader surface area – and continue to do amazing things," he said. The alternative, he said, was an era of stasis and stagnation on Earth, where we are forced to control population and limit energy usage per capita.
"I don't think stasis is compatible with freedom or liberty, and I sure as hell think it's going to be a very boring world – I want my grandchildren's grandchildren to be in a world of pioneering, exploration and expansion throughout the solar system."
He also suggested that exploration and colonisation of the solar system would make it possible to support one trillion people.
"Then we would have 1,000 Einstein's and 1,000 Mozarts, how cool would that be?" he said.
"What's holding us back from making that next step is that space travel is just too darned expensive because we throw the rockets away. We need to build reusable rockets and that's what Blue Origin is dedicated to."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday July 18 2017, @05:01AM
"We can harvest resources /../ The alternative, he said, was an era of stasis and stagnation on Earth, where we are forced to control population and limit energy usage" and then.. *drumbeat* "make it possible to support one trillion people". So we enable ourselves to do away with scarcity in practice only to use it up to breed because.. mooaahr babies better? He's a megalomaniac or at best greedy asshole.
What happens to those trillion people when the resources to feed them runs out, again is easy to figure out. At least the end result.
Einstein's and Mozart's are already here. It's just that the society is not conducive to them. It's related to societal virtues, school, job market etc. Present day Einstein would be bullied to death because he didn't belong to the popular pack. Be bogged down with ridiculous rote learning tests. Parents would want to him to do sports and be like other normal kids. The library would not have anything that mattered to read. College only accept those ridiculous tests and people indulged in the right ideology shit of the year. The work would not allow any spare time because of slimmed organization. Instead any slack in time would be used for drilling the ideology of the day. etc..
Pioneering, exploration and expansion needs not people in general but bright and creative people. And a hands off approach from management which Bezos is unlikely to be. Besides it seems likely he would cut corners on safety issues when the opportunity comes up. After all pushing people until they collapse is just what he does right now.
Musk already do the reusable rocket thing. So what is holding back Bezos is likely himself and his management style.
If the history says anything it is that the future will be better with more machinery and less people. But it got to be nurtured and educated people not some sexual accident. We got enough of random people on earth already.
Can't Trump ban Bezos from space? :-)