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 Runaway1956 on Monday July 17 2017, @04:56AM (4 children)
Perhaps you could make a list of people who have pushed the world forward, who WERE NOT nucking phutts. Name a famous (or infamous) person, and what do you have? A PERSON. People are complicated. All people have their strengths and weaknesses. And, strangely enough, sometimes it's the person's weakness that ends up making him great. Start naming people from industry, religion, philosophy, politics, or whatever else, and we can find their detractors. Often times, those detractors are just as right as the supporters - the man (or woman) at the center of Getting Shit Done® is somehow "defective".
And, none of that changes the truth of what the "defective person" says.
I only disagree with Musk's projected population because I think *something* will happen to push people beyond the solar system before the population gets that high. Generation ships, or suspended animation, or Faster Than Light, or wormholes, or any of a number of other Science Fiction ideas will happen, and mankind will gain access to planets far more hospitable than the various rocks we are looking at within our own solar system.
Face it, not much of the solar system looks very hospitable for earth life. We've got earth, where life is easy, and we've got a very limited number of candidates where life will be pretty damned difficult for decades or centuries.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday July 17 2017, @05:49AM (3 children)
Lol @ Bezos, the second fiddle of the commercial space race.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 17 2017, @08:34AM (2 children)
LOL - think one thing, type another!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @08:49AM (1 child)
WTF- Think nothing, type loads of bullshit. We know what you were thinking, Runaway! NOT!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 17 2017, @02:32PM
Fascinating, that you are so obsessed with Runaway. When you grow up, you want to be just like him, right? Or, is it more personal than that?