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Comment Re:Meh? (Score 1) 41

The source code is written in assembly

FTFS, "it's the first version of UNIX in which the kernel and some of the core utilities were rewritten in the new C programming language"

Put this source code in front of 99.9% of the people here on Slashdot and they'd be able to do nothing with it.

Yes, this place really has gone to shit.

Comment Re:Without my money (Score 1) 74

Some of the technologies that would enable space exploration could also help us with the goal of repairing our biosphere though.

Yes, but we could also develop the same technologies and then not spend the money going to space, and instead implement them here, and think about space exploration once we're sure we have a future.

Comment Re: Without my money (Score 1) 74

The game alpha centauri is a lot more applicable here. However what you are talking about requires future technology. You would need self repairing machines for that. While this is arguably semi-feasible (design machines to be more modular and therefore serviceable by robots which could swap modules) they don't exist yet. And once they do we will be too busy dealing with the upheaval from the destruction of service jobs to think about colonizing other planets or moons.

Comment Self-destruction (Score 1) 122

Merchants that accept one kind of Visa credit card wouldn't have to accept all Visa credit cards, for example. Under the current talks, credit-card acceptance would be divided into several categories including rewards credit cards, credit cards with no rewards programs, and commercial cards

If it's not clear which cards will be taken where based on the logo, then those logos will be devalued. Whichever processor STOPS doing this first will win.

Comment Re:I reject the premise (Score 2) 74

Barring pretty exciting advances in biotech(along with either the psychology or...less wholesome methods...of keeping people on-task when they learn that their 4-century lifespan will be dedicated to a period of drifting through nothing and a life sentence studying the surfaces of Kuiper belt objects inside a tiny habitube or something) you are going to hit a line where (human) exploration is not going to be readily separable from human colonization; just because shipping times become prohibitive: Anywhere on earth you can just pack some extra canned goods and a few spare parts and be there and back in under a decade even with age of sail era tech; even faster now unless the obstacle is political objections by people who already live there, in which case it's 'espionage' more than 'exploration'. Hasn't really been a notable case of 'exploration inextricably linked to colonization' since humans crossed the Bering straight into the Americas, with some weaker alternatives from the colonial period where it almost certainly wouldn't have been as cost-effective; but would have been theoretically feasible.

Near-earth objects are mostly in the same board. Shipping cost are higher, so presumably lunar mining overseers will receive less frequent breaks than offshore drill rig workers; but the moon is only 3-ish days away. As you move further away the numbers get less favorable; though they still remain within the realm of "there were people circumnavigating the earth in that time, even before we knew how scurvy worked" or at least "modest chunk of your expected working life"; and it may well be relevant that a lot of the more distant objects are either gas giants that you would only ever observe rather than land on, or very small solid bodies that you could potentially just have a robot slap an ion drive on and bring back for your perusal.

Ultimately, it seems like it boils down to an irrational emotional position. Some people, don't know why, just look at a situation and are all "the most fulfilling outcome possible would be making this the next generation's problem!" Leads to enough bad calls earthside; I assume there will be some particularly grim outcomes in more hostile environments.

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