Post #4048773

2026-07-23 23:18 UTC

As Prof. @sundogplanets@mastodon.social has been steadily reporting, the corporate sort of "space exploration" is geared towards brute-force occupation of space at top speed, pouring millions of satellites into orbiting "constellations" (the choice of language is...highly suggestive in a way I'll get into later) and launching gaudy ornaments high above the Earth. The technology sector doesn't actually like the stars that much, they sneer at #astronomy just as they sneer at any pursuit that has no obvious payoff for them. The cynical and carping culture of U.S. popular science, dominated by profoundly questionable ambassadors of the scientific world such as Neil Tyson and Richard Dawkins, has encouraged the notion that space is already a solved problem somehow. (cont'd)

Replies (1)

@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-23 23:22

It's a dead thing to #technology people, #space. It's a vast quarry for materials, a place to decorate with flashy showy things like #Starlink space pollution, a graveyard for human failings and human refuse...and above all else space to them means continuation of their overdriven culture of conquest. Space is big, big enough to keep alive the grubby tyrannical daydreams of a million would-be Emperors of the Known Universe. That implies something very upsetting: the high-tech barons and their pet scientific authorities, Richard Dawkins especially, have already erased the possibility of extraterrestrial life from their imaginations. It's a complication they do NOT want in their simple frugal lives of insatiable rapacity. (cont'd)

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