How Noam Chomsky and Lawrence Krauss got space exploration wrong

According to a Tuesday piece in Motherboard, Noam Chomsky, a philosopher and political commentator, and Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and cosmologist, had a public dialogue about space exploration. Being both men of the far left, they concluded that space travel should be best left to robots and conducted by governments. The conclusions are the exact opposite of what the prevailing trends are in space policy.

In college I wasn’t very politically or morally aware, but dated a few left-wing girls, probably because they were easier.

Anyway, I attended 2 Chomsky lectures. All I remember was that he was mental for Henry Kissinger. Henry Kissinger was satan and the cause of literally everything bad in the world. Chomsky has probably moved on now from Kissinger, probably to Dick Cheney in the 2000’s, to the Tea Party, Ted Cruz or Scott Walker now. Being a bogeyman of a freak like Chomsky should be a badge of honor. I also remember his lectures were a hairball of conspiracy theories. You had to believe him first, and his know and accept all his slogans to understand him. It was like he was leading some kind of faith-based leftist religious service.

Anyway, thanks to Chomsky, I can say I started to realize I was NOT a leftist.

Poor Noam - he knows better but he can't admit it. How we approach space will not be to treat it - good Lord, did he really say this? - as a "common possession". Of us? Of teat-sucking mammals on an insignificant planet of a type G star? Possessors of the universe? Please.

No, it will work on certain well-established models of human behavior we've already recorded in tedious detail. It will depend on what we find out there.

1. If there are natural resources we may exploit, we will. Or not, and leave them lie until some one of us does and gets rich, and then everyone will.

2. If there are entities out there with possessions we covet, and we can, we will take them.

3. If there are entities out there that covet our selves or our possessions, and they can, they will take us and ours until we run like hell.

4. If there are entities out there we can trade with as equals because neither of us can destroy the other conveniently, we will.

That's it. This does not depend on any government model because monarchies, republics, despotisms, all have exhibited this behavior here on Earth. World government will not stop it. Neither will anarchy. Rules-makers will be laughed at eventually. Philosophers will bewail it and tuck into a Martian-burger anyway.

Anyone who can think of a counter-example in history, I'm all ears. Noam and his buddies consider it "imperialism", a sad characteristic of white Westerners, but we didn't invent it. It's just how our species behaves.

We would have learned a lot much more faster if we had sent a bunch of unmanned probe missions out to space rather than wasting billions on space stations and shuttles.

So as far as government activity goes, probes are the way to go.

The moon landing was just about spitting in the Soviet's eyes, and I support it for just that reason.

Whatever private companies want to do is fine. If they want to send humans into orbit or to Mars, fine.

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