Neil deGrasse Tyson: Why Did We Stop Dreaming About Outer Space? (Video)

By ralph on August 14, 2011 in News 31

Astrophysicist and NOVA host Neil deGrasse Tyson laments the United States’ failure of imagination with its space program, from a recent episode of Real Time with Bill Maher:

Astronomy, Dreams, Economics, Government, NASA, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Politics, Society, Space Exploration, Universe

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Mr Willow

All true. All sad. But beyond that, the majority of people are not dreaming of the metaphorical tomorrow because something wonderful has been promised (or at least theorised) to be waiting for them. They are planning for the metaphorical tomorrow to make sure they survive to see it.
Anonymous

I stopped dreaming about space because I finally understood how big it is. This planet is where the story of our species ends.
Yith

It is a multifaceted problem: politics (“how would NASA spend the funds? Which states would benefit the most?”; “look at the inequality in this country… and you want to waste tax money on pie-in-the-sky space missions?… what you propose is immoral!”); uninterested public (“who cares about space?… give me Facebook and football.”); anti-science public (“scientists are elitists and all science produces is bombs, medicines that make us sick, and gadgets that distract us.”); safety concerns (“Look how many have died on space missions… it’s immoral to send people into space, even if they volunteer!” [that doesn't mean we can't have lots of robot missions.]); interference with private enterprise (“Why waste money on a government agency like NASA when the private sector can do it all? By funding NASA we are taking that opportunity away from the private sector.”); no competition (“Let’s face it, the U.S. space program was a response to the Soviet’s space program; there’s no more Soviet union, and therefore no more need of NASA.”); etc. etc.
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

you are a sad human being indeed then.
Dr K

I love how excited Americans get when you say the words dream or freedom or liberty, it’s like an automatic cheer response with those guys. Aside from that I think space just got really hard. It’s a hostile place with unfathomable distances to cross. It is sad … space used to be sexy.
http://twitter.com/Boom_Briggs Al Briggs

I’ll start dreaming of space when America puts an end to the Fed and we get our 3-star credit status back.
http://twitter.com/Boom_Briggs Al Briggs

I’ll start dreaming of space when America puts an end to the Fed and we get our 3-star credit status back.
Anon

with the free market mindset that the u.s. have, without competition from the soviets they just weren’t motivated anymore
Anonymous

Start shooting anyone who questions spending on the space program. Those stars up there are ours. It will take dozens of generations to reach them.

But we will, and the very universe itself will sing of our glory.

/propaganda
StillAtMyMoms

Uh, because we more than likely never left earth’s orbit in the first place? (RE: Van Allen radiation belt)

Information today is being disseminated at an unprecedented rate. This causes people like us to formulate educated opinions and cast doubt on the validity of the space program. I always found it peculiar that we never returned to the moon over thirty years. It is a coincidence that our space program is seemingly at an abrupt halt because maybe we are on their tail about whether or not it is truly a program of exploration or to just rouse nationalistic pride by displaying technological supremacy and scientific prowess.

….Plus not to mention the trillions of dollars spent in resource accumulation (RE: Afghanistan and Iraq–well, maybe we invaded it because they possessed ancient technology) and the military-industrial complex apparatus for the impending cluster fuck about to ensue since we continually remain apathetic and waste finite resources like no tomorrow. We haven’t removed the veil–the general public that is. But then again, words must be put into actions.

Is it a coincidence the gubmint ended the space shuttle and reduced funding at NASA at the closely approaching apex of the conspiracy movement?

P.S. I was referring to manned spacecrafts in this comment. Those who want to rebuttal with the moon and how they have reflectors up there, then how can you prove they were put up there by man?
123

If there are intelligent beings or inhabitable planets or moons out there, human beings can’t make the trip simply because we can’t live that long. Time and resources are better spent trying to fix problems on Earth. Thinking we can find a new planet to live on is the cowards’ way out.
respect cult

shakes fist in anger
respect cult

didnt you watch men in black? we are inside of a marble man. The universe is as big as your imagination. I think there will always be people trying to go to space, but better technology is needed. Once space lifts come into play it will be more common to explore. We like putting stuff in space but there is only so much thats needed.
DeepCough

Maybe if the U.S. graduated more science majors, it would not only have a substantial space program, we’d probably have bases on the moon (along with the ones the Nazis put up there :-B).
Andrew

Mammon worship.
Andrew

> 3-star credit status

What an emaciated fantasy.
chinagreenelvis

I’m not even going to begin to tell you how phenomenally misguided the premises of this argument are. Suffice to say that if you start off with an innacurate claim, your conclusion will be equally wrong.
Wanooski

Why? Possibly because our planet shouldn’t have to die so arrogant nerds can colonize asteroids and pretend they’re masters of the universe.
Andrew

Interesting… So how is the space program killing the planet?
Anonymous

Yes, it is the conspiracy nuts and their reputation for sound logic and rigorous analysis that the government bases funding decisions on in space exploration.

Only deluded dupes and sheeple would consider such considerations as-

-the shuttle program did not really fulfill its intended purpose as a cheap and safe reusable vehicle to undertake regular trips into low orbit. It was neither as safe, as cheap, or used as regularly as hoped when it was started. The program simply wasn’t successful when judged against the objectives it was set up to fulfill.

-given the political class says there is no money and that things must be cut, NASA funding is an easy target compared to the kind of controversy that would arise from cutting spending in areas that affect large numbers of people directly or are protected by powerful lobby groups and vested interests (think military spending, amongst others)

As for the moon reflectors, I don’t see the point. The government could place the evidence up there even if people weren’t sent to the moon, it would be a reasonably simple unmanned mission to place reflectors up there.

You also answer your own question about why the US hasn’t returned to the moon when you mention the space program as a tool for rousing nationalist pride and scientific willy-waving. The Russians have been beaten, USA #1! So no urgent need to go back there again. Such willy-waving is why the Chinese want to send someone to the moon, just to show that they’re one of the big boys internationally in science and technology, as well as something to dazzle the Chinese populace domestically and make them say “We so good! China #1!” There’s no scientific merit in sending a person to the moon unless you’re studying the effect of going to the moon on people. If China were interested in science on the moon then a probe could do the job more cheaply and safely.
Anonymous

Yip!
PaulDirac

Listen people, we have all the technology to go anywhere in this solar system easily and safely. For national security reasons they cannot release the technology because stupid people would end up fucking up the whole universe instead of just earth.

Just listen to former Lockheed Skunk Works CEO Ben Rich: “We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity.. anything you can imagine we already know how to do.”

If you don’t believe that we fuel are cars, heat are houses, and run our appliances off of outdated obsolete technology. If you don’t believe that we have much better “unlimited quantum energy devices” wrapped up in black projects somewhere. Than you are misguided, uninformed, brainwashed, and part of the problem. We need everyone to realize that we fuel are cars, heat are houses, and pay for energy to run our appliances because of corporate greed, NOT because physics tells us we cant do it any better!

In the 1930′s the Royal Society and the leaders of our great educational institutions decided to remove negative probability’s from physics along with negative energy states. They did this because it scared them that reality could be manipulated to have negative outcomes. We can live like they do in Star Wars, but a group of people in the 1930′s thought that would be to scary and decided to put a stop to it at the order of JP Morgan.

WAKE UP PEOPLE, your living in a world that has lied to you since your birth. And your teachers and professors will unwittingly defend the dogma with all their might.
FlightoftheNavigator

Amen to that brother!
Anonymous

Gibberish.

We can’t live like they do in Star Wars. EVER. Not even close. Or are ALL scientists LYING about EVERYTHING they say about physics and astronomy?
SundayAfternoon8563

Lol, I say the later.. I don’t think the scientists are lying deliberately, which is what I think PaulDirac here is pointing out. They have just been taught the same way you and I have. Maybe there is something hidden in physics which gives the US and it’s $1000 toilets seats an edge.. Astronomy has already pointed out that “dark energy” has negative gravitic effects which would confirm the existence of “negative energy states” if I understand them correctly. Star Wars technology isn’t even that advanced. A guy (George Lucas) in 1960′s has an idea for the future: “She’ll make point five past lightspeed” Come on… We can fold space-time given enough energy according to physics and einstein, and the best thing Star Wars can do is +0.5 FTL, bahh…
Anonymous

Well I hope people can travel throughout space in reasonable time and not take a million years to get to a habitable planet (i.e. never get to another planet).

But I don’t think I am a genius. And I know there are people that are and that know more about science than I ever will. It is ridiculous, seems to me, to think I know more than them and that they are all duped. Scientists are a bit more diverse and testy and flexible than say Medieval monks and there are more scientists alive and working this very day than the total number that existed throughout all of history.
Yith

That’s a new conspiracy theory. Hadn’t heard that one before: The conspiracy to eliminate negative probabilities. LOLZ!

Let me give you a little test to see how easily you believe in made-up conspiracies: back in about 2003 a researcher (flex you Google muscles by seeing if you can look her up — she’s Chinese-American) spilled the beans on the USG’s latest work on artificial intelligence, specifically question-and-answer systems and natural language processing like that employed by IBM’s Watson computer (including software). Bear in mind, though, that that was back in the early 2000′s. Almost a decade later, and the powers that be now have full-blown AI. And in fact, the upper echelons of the USG are controlled by AI agents called `sentients’ (as from the TV series Odyssey 5). When Alex Jones spoke of the “clockwork elves” running the show, he only knew the half of it: you are a slave… I’m slave… we’re all slaves to the “clockwork elves”.

Did you like that? Were you gullible enough to believe it?
SundayAfternoon8563

After mentioning Alex Jones, you think he’s the crazy one? I don’t care if it was condescending sarcasm, it cost you kudos points.. What in his post sounds crazy enough to warrant the use of “clockwork elves” in a rebuttal? You can’t be that close minded to think government conspiracy’s don’t exist. Any time a person or corporation is given ultimate monetary power, such as the case with the FED. There is a huge temptation for corruption and misplaced power. Who’s to say the banks and financiers of our beloved institutions are not keeping huge scientific breakthroughs from us. Take a look at Dr. Victor Klimov from Los Alamos National Laboratory, who developed an over-unity solar cell using carrier multiplication.

Quoting Victor: ”Carrier multiplication actually relies upon very strong interactions between electrons squeezed within the tiny volume of a nanoscale semiconductor particle. That is why it is the particle size, not its composition that mostly determines the efficiency of the effect. In nanosize crystals, strong electron-electron interactions make a high-energy electron unstable. This electron only exists in its so-called ‘virtual state’ for an instant before rapidly transforming into a more stable state comprising two or more electrons.”Yet we don’t see that in the main stream… There is a lot of terrible institutions like the IMF, US FED, World Bank, etc.. I would not put it past them to suppress a technology that may damage their profits in one way or another. I believe people should investigate a conspiracy before resorting to name calling.
Yith

I guess I was being a bit harsh — too easy to do when you can’t see the person you’re communicating with, I suppose.

The “unlimited quantum energy devices” IS far out there, however. Nonetheless, it’s probably true that there are secret government and corporate projects that could have an enormous impact on society if they were made public. Something like the following: breakthrough cancer treatments, currently at the research stage; drugs to extend human life-span (successfully tested on primates); ultra high-density rechargeable batteries (several times better than those used in today’s Prius cars); super-efficient solar cells (low-cost and approaching 60% efficiency in converting light to electricity); new high-temperature superconductors (e.g. capable of operating at temperatures up to -100 C); prototype graphene chips that run 10 times faster than top-of-the-line silicon chips; super-efficient algorithms for solving seemingly intractable, important problems (e.g. predicting protein folding).

I’m not saying that any of these things are *real*… only that they are *like* the kind of things that governments and corporations might want to keep secret for the time being.
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

…we stopped dreaming of space and looking upward…right about the time our highest priority became scouring the ground below us for tomorrows crusts of bread…

It’s not a coincidence that our era of space flight waxed at the same time as our prosperity as a nation…and waned as that prosperity failed and became history/
Anonymous

“We” stopped dreaming of space when the Space Race ended. Propaganda and a rival are useful in stoking the mass’s imagination.

China will do the trick, or some other country. Let China land on the moon and see what happens to our dreams. Kind of disgusting but that’s America and that’s people. Most folks aren’t idealistic intellectuals