Author: GadgetNate

Dave is the uncle of a dear friend of mind in York. We talked a bit about him at the beginning.

Dave had not heard about NASA’s 2024 moon plans. He pointed out that some people might take exception at the phrase “back to the moon” as some people do not believe that NASA actually made it to the moon the first time. In fact, Dave remembers seeing the video when he was 25 of the 1969 moon landing, and it looked very unreal to him. And NASA was under a lot of pressure to get there by the end of the decade, and he wonders if maybe NASA claimed victory without actually making it there.

This is an echo of some other conversations that I have had. I had talked to a medical doctor who saw a documentary on the history channel that made the assertion that no one could survive the radiation of the Van Allen belts which the Apollo astronauts would have had to go through.

I had also talked to some people that doubted it because we stopped going. “If we really went to the moon” they reasoned, “then why did we stop? Why can’t we go there now.”

I think all of these are reasons to successfully complete the 2024 moon landing.

Dave also thinks that the expense of going to the moon would be better focused on earth. I mentioned Jeff Bezos idea that we could use space to protect the earth I did not get to explore this as much as I would have liked.

Dave has no interest in going into space himself. He would rather see more of the earth.

Like almost everyone I have interviewed so far, Drishti had not heard about NASA plans to put people on the moon in 2024. She thinks it is a good thing to be exploring and to be pushing our frontiers.

Space exploration and how the earth relates to the rest of the universe is not something that people in her community are really concerned about. Most people are concerned with the activities around their lives and local communities. This echos some of the comments by previous people I have interviewed. People simply do not think space exploration is something that will affect their lives or something that they really do not need to think about.

And it will be really surprising to them when the SpaceX Starship starts having successful launches, and opens up space. I think the implications of this is beyond imagining and will come to a great shock to 99.99999% of the worlds population.

Saif had not heard about NASA’s return to the moon, but he hopes that there will be many life improving spinoffs like last time.

Saif would take the opportunity to visit space if he could. But he thinks it is unlikely, but is willing to keep an opened mind.

Unleashing the capacities of people around the world to work together to make this world better, to explore space, and to learn about the nature of the universe will be key to ensuring humanity’s future.

I have been taking an online course to learn “Autocad Fusion 360 in 30 days” and using a 3D printer to create a physical version of the design. Saif and I will be working on scheduling an online session for people in his community to see the process and to see 3D printing in action.

If each of us take time to teach a little of what we know and if we all are constantly pushing ourselves to learn more, then we can make this world a better place.

Jalees believes in the “abundance mindset”. This is the thought that with human intelligence we can turn a limited amount of raw materials into an unlimited amount of resources. This is the thought that you enrich me, and I enrich you. This is completely the opposite of the “scarcity mindset” which says there is a limited amount. If I give you something, than I am poorer. And I need to go out and lay claim to everything I can so that I have something for me.

It is the “scarcity mindset” that Robert Zubrin called one of the “bad ideas” that lead to World War I and World War II. And if we are not careful, the scarcity mindset will lead to more conflict and less for all of us. Robert Zubrin likes to say that there are no “natural resources” there are only raw materials. It is human intelligence that can take a raw material and turn it into a resource. And every brain that we can get to think about the problem, the richer we will all be.

But the scarcity mindset is hammered into us from pre-school. We are in an artificial competition with our classmates. It does not matter how much you know in school, it matters how much MORE you know. Therefore if you want to be first in your class, you have no incentive to improve the other people in your class. In fact you have the exact opposite incentive.

Also, our schools teach abstract things. Not practical things. Students need to work and do actual productive things. Like cook the meals, repair the buildings, run a farm, figure out how to generate electricity, build cars, boats, and airplanes, and through all these activities the math, language, science, and engineering can be taught. Through these activities the related history can be touched on. And literature can be explored.

We could do so much more if we could only unleash the potential in ourselves and the potential in each other.