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65 Years; 7 Months; 3 Days
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:28 pm
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:28 pm
As we celebrated / remembered the 50th anniversary of the landing on the moon. What amazes me is it only took us 65 1/2 years from Orville & Wilbur Wright’s first flight to land a man on the moon. To me in many ways that represents an astounding leap in technical knowledge and ability that makes it seem like what we have achieved since almost pale in comparison. It almost seems incomprehensible to me to be able to achieve that in such a short time frame.
Any thoughts on this?
Any thoughts on this?
8
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:38 pm to dallasaggie
You had 2 World Wars that fueled the development of much of that technology. WWI advances the concept of flight and WWII opened up the jet age and space flight. What followed was a Cold War that pushed the Soviet Union and the US to expand upon work done by NAZI rocket scientists into a full blown space race. Then the big wars stopped. Research money dwindled and societies turned on themselves and began to devour any sense of national pride.
So in other words, war brings us together and inspires cooperation for a single purpose. Peace leads to flakejobs destroying all we fought for. It’s really that simple.
So in other words, war brings us together and inspires cooperation for a single purpose. Peace leads to flakejobs destroying all we fought for. It’s really that simple.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:39 pm to dallasaggie
We never landed on the moon.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:44 pm to MaroonNation
I agree with everything you said... it lined up perfectly for this to happen. But it does amaze me the short time it took when you compare it to so much of mankind’s history.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:50 pm to dallasaggie
JFK. 
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:52 pm to dallasaggie
Absolutely. If we were in imminent danger of our planet being destroyed in the next 25 years, and we knew it was coming, then I guarantee you interstellar space travel could be knocked out too. We theoretically have all the ingredients needed. We have the Hadron supercollider that manufactures a small but storable amount of anti-matter for fusion engines. It would take the combined economies of every country on Earth to make it happen. And it would have to be entirely built in the vacuum of space because we couldn’t build such a massive ship on Earth.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 9:55 pm to dallasaggie
Science didn’t really take prominence in society until we needed it. That is to say, humans understood the principles of technological before we ever attempted it. I’m not referring to the principles in terms of the mechanics involved, but the thought processes in order to invent said technology. Because humans were so much more advanced than our technology was, when we as society finally started to develop technology, the growth of those developments was exponential. It created a chain reaction of discovery after discovery. Now it’s slowing down a bit because we are focused on constantly pushing the cutting edge, so our technology doesn’t fall behind our knowledge.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:01 pm to Terrific Tales
I get what you are saying. Once rocket engines were developed it was just a matter of time. I guess it’s harder to figure out next as we can’t test the true limits of what we can do because (say going to one of Jupiter’s moons would take so much time.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:05 pm to dallasaggie
Well I think it’s less about testing limits and more about lacking direction. We don’t have anything that we “need” to do that we can’t do efficiently already. We have phones that constantly get updated but really each update is just technology humanity already had and just wasn’t in that phone yet. Apple could have made the iPhone 8 the year they made the iPhone 6, in the sense that they had the technology. What they didn’t have was a blueprint. They didn’t know they wouldn’t want a home button or a headphone jack, or that other phones would get better displays and they would have to match that. It’s well and good to have technology but advancements only happen exponentially when there is a goal.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:07 pm to Terrific Tales
That’s true IF technology in the civilian market matches technology in the military market. Defense spending has always been the catalyst for development of new technology. We don’t see the benefits of their technology until they have something better and governments allow the older tech to enter the civilian market. And during times of peace DARPA just isn’t being pressed to develop a lot of new tech.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:13 pm to Terrific Tales
To use the iPhone argument - there is annual updates for example the size of chips keep getting smaller so they couldn’t make a few years ago. Say a 14nm processor on an iPhone7 and they are talking about 5nm within the next year.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:13 pm to dallasaggie
quote:
I agree with everything you said... it lined up perfectly for this to happen. But it does amaze me the short time it took when you compare it to so much of mankind’s history.
It’s crazy that humans have inhabited this planet for hundreds of thousands of years but the most profound advancements have occurred in the last 120 years or so.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:14 pm to dallasaggie
OTOH, look at it this way: it only took us 65 years to go from grounded to exploring our own atmosphere, to exploring our nearby rock. And in the 50 years since? Nothing.
Makes me skeptical that insterllar travel will ever be possible for us to not keep making leaps and bounds like that.
Did we reach our limit? I think so. Or at least pretty darn close.
Makes me skeptical that insterllar travel will ever be possible for us to not keep making leaps and bounds like that.
Did we reach our limit? I think so. Or at least pretty darn close.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:16 pm to MaroonNation
Well sure, but there is two types of advancement. One is what you are talking about with these new huge inventions and technologies that don’t really matter because we aren’t at war, but are being worked on non stop with no driving force. And what I mean by that is that there isn’t any specific reason why we need any of those things. It’s invention for the sake of invention and preparing for a future we can’t predict. The other side of that coin is the kind of world changing invention driven by a need. Things like the car, lightbulb, telephone. All these world changing inventions. That’s more what I mean when I say exponential development. Sure the military is creating technology at an exponential rate but the advancement of technology in the world is slower than its been for 50 years.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:17 pm to MaroonNation
All these damn NASA shows I’ve been watching this week just got my mind wandering. Certain things that we accomplished- particularly as a result of many German / Jewish scientists that came over before and after the war. Just wow.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:20 pm to dallasaggie
See that’s what they want you to think. Yes it’s true that those chips don’t exist now, but that’s different from them not being able to be made 5 or 10 years ago. It’s not like what they are using to make this stuff is “new” persay, it’s just a different way that they hadn’t tried. I don’t know if I consider that true advancement.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:53 pm to pioneerbasketball
quote:
We never landed on the moon.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 10:55 pm to TT9
quote:
JFK.
a great POTUS
Posted on 7/22/19 at 11:23 pm to Terrific Tales
quote:
ell sure, but there is two types of advancement. One is what you are talking about with these new huge inventions and technologies that don’t really matter because we aren’t at war, but ar
You seriously underestimate the things all around you that were developed initially for military applications. Things you depend on very much.
Posted on 7/22/19 at 11:31 pm to dallasaggie
quote:
All these damn NASA shows I’ve been watching this week just got my mind wandering. Certain things that we accomplished- particularly as a result of many German / Jewish scientists that came over before and after the war. Just wow.
Fortunately we got Von Braun before the Soviets got him. He was target #1 for both sides. He was a complex man for sure. He and his fellow German scientists were technically POWs that were spirited out of Germany and plopped down in Huntsville, Alabama and ordered to get to work developing aerospace technology for us. He was a member of the NAZI party and an officer in the Wehrmacht but I honestly believe that he did all of that merely to ensure that Hitler continued to fund his work. He could have cared less that there was a war going on. All he wanted to do was build rockets and fly to the moon
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