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posted by martyb on Monday December 24 2018, @10:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the nothing-lasts-more-than-8-years dept.

Mankind has a history of long term projects. The Pyramids, Stonehenge, The Great Wall, getting Mickey Mouse into the Public Domain...

Some of these projects took multiple centuries of effort. Not a single person present at the start of those saw them completed. This is made worse when you consider lifespans that were half or less what they are currently.

But what was the LAST project that spanned lifetimes? Do you know of any going on today?

The Great Wall was started in 300 B.C. and completed some 1900 years later.

As humanity considers things like colonizing other planets and space megastructures we are talking about activities that will take centuries of effort. This turns into millennia as we look at things like terraforming and actually spreading humanity beyond our own star.

Does humanity in the current instant gratification social media quarterly results era have the appetite for projects that our grandchildren won't see completed?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 25 2018, @09:57AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 25 2018, @09:57AM (#778295)

    Less than four years long projects, top eight, are what you mostly will get all the funding for from congresscritters.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 25 2018, @04:43PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 25 2018, @04:43PM (#778351) Journal
    Then get your funding from somewhere else. It's not long term planning, if you can't even from the start think of alternatives to begging from the peanut galleries of the world.