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Last updated on July 16th, 2017 at 09:29 am
Academics plead: don’t turn space into another Australia!
I, for one, welcome our new Galactic Australian overlords.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2007 10 20 at 11:52 AM • permalink
Oh, what now? Academics fretting over… the Martians, Venusians, Jovians and whatnot are going to have their land and resources “stolen”?
It’s some pretty impressive mental gymnastics to make literally everything fit their neo-Marxist political template.
“You put a footprint somewhere, it’s never the same again,” she said.
Damn those Apollo astronauts… damn them to hell!!!1!eleven!
Sheesh.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 10 20 at 11:59 AM • permalink
It already is. I learned anything from Star Trek, it’s that space is already inhabited by English-speaking white people.
Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 10 20 at 12:09 PM • permalink
- Toni Johnson-Woods has a PhD in English Literature and has studied “Contemporary Literary Theory”. Her research interests are Reality TV Gameshows and
Australian Pulp Fiction 1940s and 1950s . She appears to be an aging hippy.So, she’s an expert!She doubtless complains that we are using up all the Earth’s resources and then complains that we should not use the resources of the solar system. Rather like the enviro-mentalists who refuse the use of nucular power instead of coal.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 10 20 at 12:45 PM • permalink
PS I am a great advocate of colonizing the universe.
There are two possibilities: We meet other “intelligent” beings (not at Queensland U though, it appears) in which case we will have to share the universe, rather like the Spanish and Portugese shared the world. Or, we don’t, then it is OURS, ALL OURS, I TELL YOU .. ALL OURS!!
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 10 20 at 12:51 PM • permalink
Oh, what now? … the Martians, Venusians, Jovians and whatnot are going to have their land and resources “stolen”?
PACO Industries Australia is already working on a lovely range of faux-Venusian motifs suitable for tea towels. Place your order today!
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 20 at 05:09 PM • permalink
What’s odd is that it is rational to talk about the limits of what we should do in space; but these folks seem to think that we shouldn’t do anything at all, lest we exploit native rocks.
Posted by Bill Ramey on 2007 10 20 at 06:06 PM • permalink
- #7
Wimpy
Did you see that she watches a lot ofsoap operas…all research, you know!(PS Wimpy, it’s UQ, not Queensland U (QUT) a different place)
/pedantryHey, she’s scary!
#16 Yikes! The wedding photos were enough for me.
She may watch soaps, but I bet she doesn’t use any do the dishes.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 10 20 at 06:35 PM • permalink
Exploitation and contamination of the quaint cultures of indigenous extraterrestrial populations.
Dibs on the hotcha space princesses! Shatner can’t handle them all at his age…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 10 20 at 06:59 PM • permalink
- Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 10 20 at 07:08 PM • permalink
The asteroid belt of this star alone, pitiful as it is, holds enough nickel-iron, carbon and other resources to last the human race indefinitely.
Or, more to the point, it’s probably masses more than Earth’s crust, where all the resources we mine are locked into.
Posted by Patrick Chester on 2007 10 20 at 07:14 PM • permalink
Or is someone gonna fret over messing up the “ecology” of a chunk of rock floating in hard vacuum?
Yep, mojo, they are, because it means people would have the chance to improve their lives and standard of living. Especially if that “someone” is an ardent leftie.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 10 20 at 08:08 PM • permalink
Sir Lesley Paterson in Star Trek: The Next Degeneration…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 10 20 at 09:07 PM • permalink
#22; I can only go 18billion. Will you take a check?
Posted by dean martin on 2007 10 20 at 09:40 PM • permalink
Wasn’t Australia originally a penal colony? I seem to remember a craze a decade or more ago for doing the family tree and finding how many pick-pockets and prostitutes were in there.
What does this mean for the moon? Simple – it will soon be full of Lebanese gangsters*.
*Air not included.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 10 20 at 09:58 PM • permalink
I once had to sit through a seminar presentation arguing the ethical impermissibility of terraforming Mars. Apparently rocks have rights too. (In defence of philosophers, the first question was along the lines of: “So you would think that it all started to go wrong when we started making stone tools?”)
When the first Australian space colony is established, this will be the first message sent back to Earth:
“Who’s ‘down under’ now, Earthlings? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Posted by Alan K. Henderson on 2007 10 21 at 02:21 AM • permalink
If someone REALLY wants another Australia in space, one could take inspiration from Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress…
Posted by Alan K. Henderson on 2007 10 21 at 02:51 AM • permalink
April 2050: Compassionate lefty head-tilt campaigners lobby for Australia to say “sorry” to entire galaxy.