That part, where he gets really animated and angry sounding, about four tenths of one percent of the tax dollar, "I will not accept that we can't afford it", that sounds great, has anyone a link to that actually being said?

I'm excited that his 'star talk' podcast is going to be moved to the Nerdist youtube channel.

Also, I've always felt that this deep thought could get us back into space..."Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be considered an enemy planet."

Simple solution, guys. Make me King of the Earth. War, poverty, Justin Beiber, the lack of a manned space program. I will fix _all_ of that. I want to personally go to the moon in my lifetime, and I want all you Farkers to come with me.

Nabb1: Grand_Moff_Joseph: If it doesn't pad a CEO's bottom line, enrich the military-unicorn project book, cut taxes for the wealthy, or do something negative towards brown people, college students and/or gays, then noone in power will lift a fat finger to do anything about it.

Not for nothing, but I don't see anyone else on the other side of the political spectrum in this country falling all over themselves to do anything about it, either. Clearly the President doesn't consider manned exploration any sort of priority. We've abandoned manned space flight for the foreseeable future on his watch, and he seems perfectly content with it. This may be one issue where there is bipartisan consensus - and it's apathy.

It's just one symptom of the general malaise the country seems to be in. We've stopped believing in things. Maybe the American dream and American exceptionalism were always a lie, but when we believed we sure accomplished more. Now we just mope and whine about how the deck is stacked against us, so why try?

The statistic stating that the running sum total of NASA's budget still being lower than the recent bailout is just.....well disgusting.

/young engineer
//some of us still dream

Slaxl

That part, where he gets really animated and angry sounding, about four tenths of one percent of the tax dollar, "I will not accept that we can't afford it", that sounds great, has anyone a link to that actually being said?

He's done that several times.

Here's one TAM Panel - Our Future in Space
Long video, but well worth it.

Slaxl: That part, where he gets really animated and angry sounding, about four tenths of one percent of the tax dollar, "I will not accept that we can't afford it".........



/just another pathetic beggar

gameshowhost; ridicule Ron Paul all you want, but certainly he would not have bailed out the farking bankers with your tax money.

You'd think a scientist wouldn't use so many untestable assertions and such hyperbole to make his case.

hudef: gameshowhost; ridicule Ron Paul all you want, but certainly he would not have bailed out the farking bankers with your tax money.

He would have just made your money worthless by switching to a gold standard. It's a much more organic solution.

Tyson is damned inspiring. Hearing him speak is a joy.

That said, the words he speaks depress me. I want to grab people who don't understand him by the shoulders and shake them until they are either awake or dead. And when that fails, I want to curl up into a ball and die.

In the name of everything we hold holy...in the name of our species...this is our future. We can not afford to ignore it.

gameshowhost: hudef: gameshowhost; ridicule Ron Paul all you want, but certainly he would not have bailed out the farking bankers with your tax money.

Which has nothing to do with the notion that a libertarian system of economics wouldn't invest in society's shared interests, like a space program... but I'll humor you.

Ron Paul believes in the ~same economic system~ that corporatists believe in, which -- both in theory and in reality -- results in oligopolies or monopolies. The difference between Paul and corporatists is merely an issue of "rate of destruction". Ron Paul represents the status quo, less his policy on recreational drug use... but he can't even figure out the economics behind *why* it's a correct policy... keep barking "GWAAK FREE MARKET SUPPLY AND DEMAND FREE MARKET" as the solution to every issue and eventually you'll stumble on a private good.

Blind squirrel, nut.


The space program was dismantled by Obama and his predecessors. But you put up a straw man named Ron Paul and attack him. By responding to your absurd comment it is I who am humoring you.

/ But it's getting tedious.

hudef: gameshowhost: hudef: gameshowhost; ridicule Ron Paul all you want, but certainly he would not have bailed out the farking bankers with your tax money.

Which has nothing to do with the notion that a libertarian system of economics wouldn't invest in society's shared interests, like a space program... but I'll humor you.

Ron Paul believes in the ~same economic system~ that corporatists believe in, which -- both in theory and in reality -- results in oligopolies or monopolies. The difference between Paul and corporatists is merely an issue of "rate of destruction". Ron Paul represents the status quo, less his policy on recreational drug use... but he can't even figure out the economics behind *why* it's a correct policy... keep barking "GWAAK FREE MARKET SUPPLY AND DEMAND FREE MARKET" as the solution to every issue and eventually you'll stumble on a private good.

Blind squirrel, nut.


The space program was dismantled by Obama and his predecessors. But you put up a straw man named Ron Paul and attack him. By responding to your absurd comment it is I who am humoring you.

/ But it's getting tedious.

asshole...stop the partisan bullshiat. this is bigger and you're a dick for politicizing it

Maybe we quit 'dreaming' because we are actually experiencing space travel. It's not high adventure and screwing alien babes. It is living in your work cubicle and doing repetitive and finicky maintenance on mostly outdated equipment. It is not costless propulsion zooming around the galaxy. It is heavy lifting at high expense. Enthusiasm plateaus in the face of reality.

After being the greatest explorer in the first century of the United States, Meriwether Lewis got a government job, wrote up his adventures, and shot himself.

jaylectricity: Bob Cody: Ever hear of Frederick Turner, Mr. Oliver?
Neal Oliver: No, sir.
Bob Cody: Well, he was an historian. About a hundred years ago he came up with a theory about the frontier. He said the frontier was a safety valve for civilization, a place for people to go to keep from goin' mad. So, whenever there were folks who couldn't fit in with the way things were, nuts, and malcontents, and extremists, they'd pack up and head for the frontier. That's how America got started - all the crackpots and troublemakers in Europe packed up and went to a frontier which became the thirteen colonies. When some people couldn't fit in with that, they moved farther west, which is why all the nuts eventually ended up in California. Turner died in 1932, so he wasn't around long enough to see what would happen to the world when we ran out of frontier. Some people say we have the frontier of the mind, and they go off and explore the wonderful world of alcohol and drugs, but that's no frontier. It's just another way for us to fool ourselves. And we've created this phony frontier with computers, which allows people to, you know, think they've escaped. A frontier with access fees?
Neal Oliver: What about space? You know, the final frontier!
Bob Cody: Ah, Star Trek isn't space. That's television - fine farkin' frontier that is. Besides, how many folks can just pack up and go to space?

Wow, that is so true. What's the from?

/Would totally be a space nomad if I could

OnlyM3: Here's one TAM Panel - Our Future in Space
Long video, but well worth it.


Why is Neil so pissed off? Did he catch his wife cheating or something? He's sitting there just seething.

LasersHurt: Has anyone considered that unmanned exploration can be very fruitful, technologically speaking? "Abandoning manned spaceflight" for ten years while developing new technologies is not a bad idea in the long run.

Don't misunderstand me, I'd love to increase NASA's budget tenfold or more. Space is our future. But "manned flight right now right here immediately" isn't necessarily the only way we can go.

The problem is that robots don't inspire as effectively as humans explorers do. Part of the need for NASA and the manned space program is that it inspires young people to achieve towards technological excellence. I personally was inspired by the space program to become an engineer. The more engineers creating new technologies and products help our society overall. Inspiration and motivation is the key.

Lando Lincoln: I dream of Universal Healthcare. We've all got dreams that aren't coming true. Join the club.

There is no reason we can't have both.

Fact is, this is still, despite all our attempts to put an end to it, a very successful and wealthy country. If we really wanted to, we could still do great things. We could meet your goal and mine and have plenty left over and still have a wealthy and privileged class compared to the rest of the world.

Alas, I'm a cynic when it comes to humanity. I think humans are naturally limited by their own myopia. We are a creature, in my opinion, that is ultimately defined by self interest.

When economists discuss self interest, they're often wrong. But only to the extent that they ignore social pressure as a potential factor in self interest. Humans want to be viewed in a positive light, and in situations where that means selflessness, they'll engage in selfless behavior. It's not real altruism, but a simple desire to be venerated as a hero and selfless giver to the downtrodden and/or weak. Otherwise, humans simply take because power is success and, in our society, money is power.

Humans don't want advancement for a society, humans want to propagate genes. And, as a result, humans will engage in whatever selfish behavior advances that goal.

Sadly, that means no Mars, and that means no healthcare. Not because we can't, but because we won't. And, ultimately, only because we're complete assholes.

Oh well. It's a vast universe. We're idiots, but we're probably not the only hope when it comes to real morality.

LasersHurt: Has anyone considered that unmanned exploration can be very fruitful, technologically speaking? "Abandoning manned spaceflight" for ten years while developing new technologies is not a bad idea in the long run.

Don't misunderstand me, I'd love to increase NASA's budget tenfold or more. Space is our future. But "manned flight right now right here immediately" isn't necessarily the only way we can go.

I don't think unmanned exploration will ever be as interesting, or be able to kindle the imaginations of people as much as manned exploration. Don't get me wrong, the unmanned stuff is pretty cool, but it's hard to feel anything for a robot that's following orders or being remote controlled. Whereas you take that robot and replace it with a human, something flesh and blood that's connected to the human race, it becomes far more exciting. It does something that robot's can't do, and that's create hero's. We need to keep the manned exploration up as much as we do the unmanned, each for their own reasons.

Little_Dictator: I don't think unmanned exploration will ever be as interesting, or be able to kindle the imaginations of people as much as manned exploration.

What's the point of sending robots if we're never going to go ourselves?

voice getting just a little hood at 2:04

We didn't stop dreaming. The powers that be stopped believing in us.

Neil answered his own question. We went to space out of fear of the Soviets, and the only reason the Soviets went there was to show awesome they and Communism were. If China, Russia, India or whomever becomes the next superpower interested in space travel starts launching people to the moon, America will get off its butt and start launching our dudes.

For a brilliant scientist who knows more about the cosmos than most anyone, DeGrasse Tyson isn't thinking in a cosmological timescale. Jesus, we just harnessed steam power 200 years ago, and landed on the moon 40 years ago. That's a blink in mankind's existence. I think he's just being greedy and wants to be alive to see us land on Mars.

John Buck 41: Another thread about this Tyson guy. What's it been, a week since the last one? Maybe 10 days?

mrlewish: We didn't stop dreaming. The powers that be stopped believing in us.

Do you really think they ever cared? Do you really think they ever believed in anything more than their own glory?

The biggest failure human beings need to overcome is themselves, and humans have been who they are for a million years. Unless you can point to a human leader more than a million years old as an example, you can't point to a human leader who deserves veneration.

Only weak human need leaders, and all leaders are weak humans.