Small Government Book Fan Club discussion

From the mouth of John C. Wright:

http://www.scifiwright.com/2011/07/th...

This is the best analysis I've seen on the end of the space age. His series, THE GOLDEN AGE, is the greatest science fiction event I've ever experienced. Imagine THE FOUNTAINHEAD in space. What would Howard Roark do if he were an immortal thousands of years from now? It shows what greatness humanity could have achieved and will yet to achieve if he had adhered to reason and followed through with the dream of space.

This was a great series, although some of the hard sci-fi made my brain hurt.

The only thing I disagree with in the essay is the put-down of fantasy. Fantasy can be just as inspiring and many of the best libertarian-themed books of today are written in the fantasy genre.

John C. Wright ponders: V for Vendetta, Klavan, Occupy Wall Street, and guns.

http://www.scifiwright.com/2011/10/kl...

Cool. I read the original Klavan column but did not link to it here. I could not bring myself to sit through more than 15 minutes of V for Vendetta. My husband did finish watching and told me what happened, which made me even happier that I bailed.

The Everness books are awesome! But, Ayn Rand's estate might have a case for copying her characters.

The cover says "The Chronicles of Everness," implying there may be more books. You can't have "chronicles" with just two.

I can't quite agree with his "space age is over" assessment though. I don't really know much but AFAIK the shuttle is just an expensive and dangerous tool for sending humans to low orbit, and this task can be done cheaper by renting Russian spacecrafts or as they will do next year by private-run space companies. I actually like the current direction that privatize low-orbit business and let NASA concentrate its resources on unmanned deep space missions & new propulsion technology (none of the current ones is capable of flying us to the next planet and set up a colony or something). As to the speed of technological developments is slower than predicted stuff, I think it is a common phenomenon b/c those doing the prediction rarely understand how complicated the problem really is. Many in the 50s believe that computers will beat humans in chess in 60s, and despite the much faster-than-expected advancement of hardware we did it only in the 1990s. I do agree with him that more money should spent on R&D and higher education in STEM.

Also personally I prefer Neal Stephenson's style to his as his view on liberals is just as dogmatic as certain hard-line liberals' view on conservatives, while Neal Stephenson concentrates his attack only on anti-science and anti-reason tendencies across political spectrum & is more effective in furthering his agenda as he has been praised as often by the left as by the right.

In the long run, there will probably be private companies getting into the shuttle business and it will all be for the best. But what I think both Wright and Stephenson are talking about FUNDAMENTALLY is that we as a nation seem to have lost the ability to dream big. Every day you turn on TV or go on Yahoo homepage, there's some story about getting along with less (see my Poor is Good thread). We've had times before in this country, but now we are being brainwashed into accepting it as the "new normal." No more oil, no more big houses or fast cars and DEFINITELY no more space exploration. THAT's the disturbing part, not just getting NASA out of the shuttle business (and into Muslim outreach, of all things) but the attitude that drives this change.

I was always of the opinion, even during the heydays of the Apollo program, that humankind would never get into space in any serious way until we discovered ways to make it profitable, at which point, barring oppressive government actions, there would be no way to keep us earthbound. NASA, despite it's impressive and even inspirational contributions in the beginning, has transmogrified itself into just one more government bureaucracy. I became convinced of that with the Challenger disaster, and if, at this point, they want to reach out to Moslems, well, at least the unending fruitlessness of that task should keep them busy enough to stay out or other peoples' hair for a while.

Well originally the whole thing was driven by the Cold War. After that, yes, there was a lot of valuable research done, but it probably would have been better off in private hands. We'll just have to wait and see. But when you look at the ridicule Newt Gingrich got when he mentioned going to the moon (complete with an obligatory SNL skit), that just made me sad. We as a nation didn't USED TO laugh at those ideas; we thought they were possible.

Not everybody laughs at those ideas even today. The SNL audience might, but I daresay their audience is not as large as it once was. I do know that their stuff is nowhere near as funny as it used to be because I stopped watching it for that very reason years ago. So SNL now caters to the tastes of those who would snicker at America. So what? We have always had such people. And we don't need them. Let them snicker and sneer while we go on about our lives.

I think space exploration could already be profitable but people are a bit handcuffed already. It would/will take a real savvy entrepreneur to begin mining operations on the moon or even better get to the asteroid belt.

Awake in the Night is free today (don't know for how many days)-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K...

Just got it! Thanks for the recommendation!

Either I already bought it or got it for free several weeks ago. Eagerly awaiting THE CONCUBINE VECTOR.