Ned Ludd lives on

Robert Reed wrote:
> I am writing an essay about WHY we should explore space, and I plan
to fully repudiate and ridicule this article:
http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk/articles/madness.htm

>From http://www.space4peace.org/

I ran across that one before. It's maddening. The GNAWaNPiS people
are rabid, and we can't ignore them. They are the same ones who were
saying that the RTGs on the Casinni probe would destroy all life on
Earth if the launch failed.
They are active (and noisy) and they seem to keep up with what's
going on: they deride & quote John Lewis in Mining the Sky, and
SpaceDev and their plans to claim an asteroid.
They have nothing good to say about space or high technology
solutions, and every time we come up with a good way to put the ideas
before people, this nonsense gets in the way. Even if people aren't
actually into that nonsense, the general attitude is prevalent in
society, and they'll always find ways to poison an effort at getting
something happening in space.
To these people, a peaceful spaceprobe is the same as an orbiting
nuclear weapon or SDI type defenses.

One of the reasons I like the old Orion nuclear pulse rocket proposal
is that it would drive these people insane with rage (beside the fact
that it makes a great rocket).

Recall the original start of the space colony idea? O'Neill asked his
students to find a way to use technology to help humans & the Earth in
general.

The war is still being fought, and we're no closer to seeing the
breakout into space than before.
Ludd was leader of a movement to stop steam power from destroying
everything, and throwing people out of work. The Luddites are alive &
well, and they hate space. They think that if we enjoy looking at
images sent in from Jupiter probes, we're getting the same thrill of
seeing a missile go through the window of an Iraqi bunker.

To them, space colonies are a hideous fantasy concocted by people who
live in some S.F. world, and have no cares for destroying life on
Earth. If they've even heard of SPS, they think it's part of ballistic
missile defense -which is not a defensive thing at all.