Asteroid captu or whatever

How many people
> in 1910 could have imagined that almost every house in the US would have
> a television and a computer by 2010? How many would have imagined that
> the Wright Flyer would eventually lead to the wide-body Boeing 747
> capable of transporting over 500 "average" people more that 7,000 miles
> in one hop - or that thousands of people would travel by airplane every
> day.
>

Chris, how is that statement pessimistic? It's optimistic, man! You
are implying that things will right themselves 'just like always.' Not! It can't happen like that now. Conditions are completely different. In 1910 inventors could count on there being market growth on all fronts--housing, transportation, and gadgets, just as there had been for millenia. They could count on it because there was actual, real growth--about 3.3% more people every year with all their human needs. Speculative growth is different and depends on how much people can be fooled about the worth of a thing, and pay more for it than the actual value. Real growth is gone now. The US is celebrated among a handful in the developed world that is just barely managing to maintain its population, numbers-wise--no growth, though. Slipping now since the recent troubles. Not one single developed nation is presently enjoying real growth--even when they say something rare like "Germany's manufacturing output finally showed a 2% growth!" they mean finally regained what they had fifty years ago--2% of it.

Our great great grandchildren--among those of us who have them, and a whole lot of us in the middle class don't--will be lucky if they have toilet paper instead of leaves. They'll be clapping and going, "Whoo-hoo!" when the asteroids go over. "Make a wish!" (Compare a fifth grade reading book with a fifth grade reading book in 2010 and you'll get the point.)

Progress in space depends on real growth on earth, and then, the right philosophy, a certain precious mind-set. You can't even stay still on a bicycle. If you don't go forward, you're falling over.

Tougher than the physics of aerobraking, to cultivate the culture that will give us growth and nerve.