I remember seeing a link to an interview with Patrick Stewart once, many years ago now, where he expressed some doubt as to the viability of human space travel. I think it might have been on the old Trek BBC site. Has anyone seen this? What were his reasons? In all honesty, I think Stewart was very brave in voicing such an opinion.
Patrick Stewart interview
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Yes, I agree with him right now it's not justifiable to fund hugely extravagant space travel, sadly.
Hopefully one day humanity gets itself in order and we will set off for the stars
The US Military spent 40 times more than Nasas budget for the financial year 2012
In ONE YEAR, they spent FOURTY years worth of Nasas budget, in two and a half years they would spend ONE HUNDRED YEARS WORTH
If anyone wants to know why we are not on mars yet, it's because we are spending atrocious amounts of money on killing each other
Hopefully one day humanity gets itself in order and we will set off for the stars
The US Military spent 40 times more than Nasas budget for the financial year 2012
In ONE YEAR, they spent FOURTY years worth of Nasas budget, in two and a half years they would spend ONE HUNDRED YEARS WORTH
If anyone wants to know why we are not on mars yet, it's because we are spending atrocious amounts of money on killing each other
Wow. It's kind of hilarious that Patrick Stewart thinks humans shouldn't be allowed to explore space because they are a 'Dangerously savage child race'. 
I want so bad now to hear a rebuttal from John DeLancie.
An explorer who is assigned to a position where he is humanity's representative to new worlds you can argue has the right to make sweeping statements about the virtue of the race, but playing such an explorer on television does not qualify you to make the same sweeping statements. I may agree that the resources necessary to go to other planets at the moment are better spent on the ridiculous about of conflict and income disparity we have now. So phrase it as a 'Best use of resources' argument, don't phrase it in such an obnoxiously snobbish and judgmental way.
'Not having perfected the race' is no excuse not to explore outward.
I want so bad now to hear a rebuttal from John DeLancie.An explorer who is assigned to a position where he is humanity's representative to new worlds you can argue has the right to make sweeping statements about the virtue of the race, but playing such an explorer on television does not qualify you to make the same sweeping statements. I may agree that the resources necessary to go to other planets at the moment are better spent on the ridiculous about of conflict and income disparity we have now. So phrase it as a 'Best use of resources' argument, don't phrase it in such an obnoxiously snobbish and judgmental way.
'Not having perfected the race' is no excuse not to explore outward.
Wow. It's kind of hilarious that Patrick Stewart thinks humans shouldn't be allowed to explore space because they are a 'Dangerously savage child race'.
An explorer who is assigned to a position where he is humanity's representative to new worlds you can argue has the right to make sweeping statements about the virtue of the race, but playing such an explorer on television does not qualify you to make the same sweeping statements. I may agree that the resources necessary to go to other planets at the moment are better spent on the ridiculous about of conflict and income disparity we have now. So phrase it as a 'Best use of resources' argument, don't phrase it in such an obnoxiously snobbish and judgmental way.
'Not having perfected the race' is no excuse not to explore outward.
He didn't say that we shouldn't be "allowed" to explore space, not did he say that humanity would have to be perfect before heading into space. You are mis-characterizing his statement. A better paraphrase would be that we are not ready to go into space.
One would hope that devoting more resources to science and expanding our knowledge would act as a unifying force, however slowly. And I am in favor of diverting most of the US military budget into science and social development. At this point, however, we would carry all our political divisions with us into space. Proxy wars are fought on earth, and under current conditions, would be extended into space.
Wow. It's kind of hilarious that Patrick Stewart thinks humans shouldn't be allowed to explore space because they are a 'Dangerously savage child race'.
An explorer who is assigned to a position where he is humanity's representative to new worlds you can argue has the right to make sweeping statements about the virtue of the race, but playing such an explorer on television does not qualify you to make the same sweeping statements. I may agree that the resources necessary to go to other planets at the moment are better spent on the ridiculous about of conflict and income disparity we have now. So phrase it as a 'Best use of resources' argument, don't phrase it in such an obnoxiously snobbish and judgmental way.
'Not having perfected the race' is no excuse not to explore outward.
He didn't say that we shouldn't be "allowed" to explore space, not did he say that humanity would have to be perfect before heading into space. You are mis-characterizing his statement. A better paraphrase would be that we are not ready to go into space.
One would hope that devoting more resources to science and expanding our knowledge would act as a unifying force, however slowly. And I am in favor of diverting most of the US military budget into science and social development. At this point, however, we would carry all our political divisions with us into space. Proxy wars are fought on earth, and under current conditions, would be extended into space.
Exactly. Stewart is just saying that we shouldn't try to run when we've only really begun to learn to walk.
He does have a point, by the time of the earliest Trek stories the people of Earth had gotten past their differences... right now we cant get those who supposedly believe in the same ideology to get along without trying to kill each other.
If we were delivered a fully functioning starship today which was ready to go explore U would be the first to volunteer to go but also be one to ask should we risk spreading our nonsense to other planets just yet, some of us are just too quick to take offense to a difference of opinion to risk first contact with life from another planet!
If we were delivered a fully functioning starship today which was ready to go explore U would be the first to volunteer to go but also be one to ask should we risk spreading our nonsense to other planets just yet, some of us are just too quick to take offense to a difference of opinion to risk first contact with life from another planet!
If we wait until humans are "fully enlightened," we'll never get off this planet. Humans aren't perfect and never will be.
Apparently Patrick Stewart is unaware that astronauts are subect to rigorous psychological testing as well as physical and scientific training. Anyone who gets chosen to go to the Moon or Mars (or anywhere else in the immediate decades to come) would also be subject to psychological testing and assessed for compatibility.
Apparently Patrick Stewart is unaware that astronauts are subect to rigorous psychological testing as well as physical and scientific training. Anyone who gets chosen to go to the Moon or Mars (or anywhere else in the immediate decades to come) would also be subject to psychological testing and assessed for compatibility.
I'm absolutely with Stewart on the matter. Space travel is pure luxury. There is NOTHING to be gained from space travel other than perhaps tourism and scientific exploration. Forget everything you have heard about mining resources for Earth. It's bullshit. It doesn't pay off. It costs more than it gains.
And to waste money on space travel while people here are still suffering is crazy.
Where's the other thread where someone brought up that the US spent 40 years of NASA budget on ONE year's worth of military budget?
Stop having wars, then we can think about space travel. But first use that money for education, food, water, etc... for every spaceship that goes to Mars you could probably built desalination plants all over the world to handle fresh water shortages, for example. And when those problems are solved, THEN we can build our spaceships.
And to waste money on space travel while people here are still suffering is crazy.
Where's the other thread where someone brought up that the US spent 40 years of NASA budget on ONE year's worth of military budget?
Stop having wars, then we can think about space travel. But first use that money for education, food, water, etc... for every spaceship that goes to Mars you could probably built desalination plants all over the world to handle fresh water shortages, for example. And when those problems are solved, THEN we can build our spaceships.
Here I'd have to disagree with him. I'm strongly against this idea that we shouldn't be spending money until we fix all our problems. It's the same argument against any expensive research. Humans will never stop having wars or things of that nature. Are we going to stop all advancement until then?
Imagine what technology might developed in the process that could then benefit our everyday lives.
Imagine what technology might developed in the process that could then benefit our everyday lives.
I see you have already given up.
And you know that space mining costs too much because you've actually done it yourself and have the ledgers to prove it, right? I mean, with all that certain knowledge, you must be from the future, and have come back to enlighten us.
As for wasting money, everyone has their own ideas of what is a waste of money. I happen to think that if we stopped wasting money trying to kill people, we could fund both fresh-water projects, educate people, and do further research into clean energy AND go to space.
I see that Makarov is simply being realistic about human nature.
Despite my previous comment I agree with you here, we should never stop advancing our knowledge and should reach for the stars. To stall now would be turning the clock back to the dark ages where the fearful and weak minded saw witchcraft everywhere!
I just hope we grow up a little before bumping into ET otherwise some of us are bound to start a war over a difference of opinion never mind if they happen to have been observing us through various events in our history and we have it wrong.
Now this is an intriguing idea. If we did actually meet aliens who had been observing and recording our history over a period of centuries or millennia, would we thank them for setting the record straight over what really happened, or would we hate them for puncturing our "sacred truths" of what we think happened but that were proven to be false?
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