84 Comments
deletedSep 12, 2022·edited Sep 12, 2022Pinned
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Sep 11, 2022Liked by John Carter

"He said this with his eyes shining with the beatific certainty of the true believer, radiating a religious bliss that annihilated any chance of fruitful contradiction."

Welcome to the party, pal!

The New Left (aka Year Zero Cult) did not fight to win the means of cultural production just to add some "diverse voices" to the literary canon or to sprinkle some color into our boardrooms. Their entire project is a 4 Olds Deconstruction machine with no brakes and no OFF switch.

They maintain and consolidate power now because in all our global institutions of media, cultural and learning they have installed their morality as the One True Law for those who want to be considered Good and Wise—disagreeing with them in public just puts the stink of bigot or heretic on you and then the digital mob moves in to escort you to the nearest lamppost.

I think these Reign of Terror/Cultural Revolutions usually burn themselves out in a decade or so, but hopefully in our time of accelerated history they will be completely discredited sooner.

Thanks for another great post!

Expand full comment
Sep 12, 2022Liked by John Carter

There are those of us who love the earth and will seek to live here, restore and nurture her, there are others who will look to the stars. Just like long ago some chose the land, while others chose the sea. I am confused by anyone who thinks humanity must choose one path. Why should my love of home repress another's call to adventure?

Expand full comment
Sep 11, 2022·edited Sep 11, 2022Liked by John Carter

I've been comparing the lockdowns etc of the last 2++ years to the pupation stage of insects, during which most of the internal organs, etc of the caterpillar/maggot, essentially a machine for finding, consuming and absorbing resources, are broken down into a sort of soup and are rebuilt according to the dictates of "imaginal discs", ( small structures previously dormant and/or nearly invisible ), to form the adult insect, butterfly/fly etc; the organs of flight and reproduction ... Apparently pupation is triggered by the experience of imminent shortage/of exhausting the local/accessible supplies. ... I have been wondering if the massive transfer and concentration of wealth, the crushing of small businesses, of many previous structures, might represent a similar development in the global human "entity", preparation ( after the initial tentative research/exploration of the costs and challenges involved during the 60-70s ) for the hugely energy intensive requirements of space travel. ... I agree with you completely that spreading into space is probably the only thing that makes sense of our existence thus far, gives it continuing purpose.

Expand full comment

Space chicks are hot. Of course, I don't have to tell YOU that, John. I clearly remember reading about you and Thuvia.

Your drinking buddy's comment (Social Justice is ... technology) is reminiscent of how some secular humanists believe EVERYTHING IS INFRASTRUCTURE.

We live in a world populated by idiots hypnotized by trends and fads. It's best not to think too much.

Expand full comment
Sep 12, 2022Liked by John Carter

"the lowest-hanging fruit, the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu1, is estimated to be capable of yielding a profit of over $30 billion."

Why do that when you can force people to take a jab after scarring the living daylights out of em and make the same amount?

Expand full comment

I always thought the purpose of the fossil fuel dividend was to get to the next phase in human evolution at whatever pace that meant burning. Wasting it any section of society whether it’s social justice or keeping the elite in the standard to which they’ve become accustomed is a waste of time. That’s why it annoys me to see AI being used to construct a control grid instead of more fundamental research into AGI and engineering/biological applications of AI.

Expand full comment

"only the state is capable of marshalling the resources over the length of time required for such a grand project to bear fruit"

Have to figure out a way to do it without the state. The state can't be trusted to do anything positive, and the likely reason the space program worked when it did is because it was in America and the right people with real American values were in the right place at the right time. I don't expect this short comment to be persuasive, just wanted to proclaim my position is that if not for the state asserting itself as the source of scientific process in America, we would already be in space doing all the awesome stuff you envision.

Expand full comment

The exploration and colonization will happen. If the West options out, the Chinese will fill the void. Your friend was in some ways preemptively preparing, justifying that path or outcome. He was also I think seeking his place as a minor priest with high ambitions in what he believes will be the new socio-economic status quo: the Diversity Inclusion Equity caste system as/and the Biosecurity Administrative State. (The DIE caste, for short).

Space colonization would prove profoundly disruptive to our emerging Neo-feudalism. Those committed to DIE caste rightly fear that disruption. Hat tip here to Lawrence Lessig, who correctly sources Machiavelli:

*blockquote on*

Old versus new. That battle is nothing new. As Machiavelli wrote in The Prince:

Innovation makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old regime, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new. Their support is indifferent partly from fear and partly because they are generally incredulous, never really trusting new things unless they have tested them by experience.

*blockquote off*

So only lukewarm support from the people who would benefit; and animosity from those who would be challenged. The emergent regime will not tolerate any disruption but their own -- which involves if not requires the destruction of human freedom and dignity.

Expand full comment
Sep 11, 2022Liked by John Carter

Thank you John for putting thoughts to paper in a way not many of us are capable (or courageous enough).

The main issue with our species is that we tend to forget we need a frontier to avoid the stagnation brought on by comfort and the proliferation of parasites such as your buddy the librarian. Let's not forget the letter signed by so called NASA scientists warning against letting Elon Musk to colonize Mars - "we do not need another white imperialist". Let's stay here on this rock forever waiting for the unavoidable end.

Without the cleansing fire of Genghis, Asia and Europe would have continued down the path of stagnation and decay.

Let's remember that we are better off as pirates and conquerors than perfume-clad heralds of impossible things.

Unfortunately, I believe things have gone too far and the social inertia will not be defeated without a great deal of grief and suffering.

Expand full comment
Sep 12, 2022Liked by John Carter

💬 the imaginations of young men and poets alike are set afire

Which taps into almost boundless potential of human ingenuity, otherwise sleeping soundly locked away, buried below layers upon layers of mundane humdrum. You’ll never know what bounties await on the road not taken 😟

Or look through agriculture lens: banishing your future steak from grazing on hill slopes doesn’t make extra room for replacement gmo soy. A food resource abandoned.

Or consider a pet peeve of mine, the ‘global war’ on fireworks: utter waste of money in the starry (ha ha) eyes of the righteous. Elevates myriads of spirits? Can’t measure, hence doesn’t exist. Seeing like a state. Bastards 😠

Expand full comment

This is the most inspiring thing I have read in awhile. Thank you. More of that please. I would rather feel inspired than constantly dragged down.

I remember a speech from Bush the Lesser early on, about tasking NASA and challenging America to go to Mars. I said at the time, it would be nice if we could all agree to do that, to believe in something. I wanted to believe. But then it was just a slogan, the media wasn't interested, and then if was all about the War on Terror.

You challenge my thinking and presumptions like no other on Substack.

Expand full comment

The new religion has given up on the old religion's Faustian vision of 'frontier without end' for precisely the reason that it would actually solve problems here.

Expand full comment
Sep 11, 2022Liked by John Carter

Dear John, what a shopping bag! 👏 I liked Kim's premise, that we are OF Earth, made from Earth bugs & that an entirely separate world ecology would be INNATELY hostile because it is OTHER.

I've always thought Interstellar terraforming beyond our scope exactly because of this. Not to say sterile worlds aren't doable!

Now OUR solar system is something else, as you write, Up There is a plateau with lots and lots of gravity gradients, no pollutants on Earth and hey! Let's build a Ringworld!!! 🙃 Or a Dyson Sphere! Wadevs. I liked also Old Man's War, that Earth's mankind stay put but Travellers never return or mayhap I could be a Hobart Flynt. That story has a senescent Earth World Gov & is a backwater planet. But first we have to deal with proto pharaonic Billionaires who forget they are supposed to be working for Us. Let's deal with The Morlocks first... 807201.

Expand full comment
Sep 11, 2022·edited Sep 11, 2022Liked by John Carter

Believing that extraterrestrial civilizations exist and communication is possible, I'd like to see more SETI, especially in the optical domain. JWST is a serious advance in that direction. Photons are a lot easier to send than people.

Optical beams can focus more tightly than radio waves, leading to reduced energy per bit of information. For signals that travel many many lightyears, that quantity is the limiting factor. All of the radio frequency SETI work makes the contradictory assumption that extraterrestrials have highly advanced technology but communicate inefficiently. Meanwhile, optical SETI is still in its infancy, looking for huge light pulses that would be wasteful to generate. Efficient signals are likely to exploit very-narrow-band lasers, a technology which humans are still developing have not yet combined with large telescopes.

Expand full comment
Apr 11, 2023Liked by John Carter

My man! I almost unsubscribed after the Caesar=Christ debacle but decided to stay to see if you’d redeem yourself. You just did (in advance so to speak). I fucking hated Aurora, too. It used the tropes of SF to stab SF in the back. KSR is dead to me. What do you think of Reynolds and Tchaikovsky?

Expand full comment