Wrong predictions 25 years later

[Sardukhar]

Now we just wait for commercial space flights.

So close.

http://www.virgingalactic.com

Also, "The publicized price for flights brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been US $20–40 million, during the period 2001–2009 when 7 space tourists made 8 space flights. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit.
Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would have been sold to paying spaceflight participants.[1][2] Orbital tourist flights are planned to resume in 2015.[3]"

 

[Suhiira]

Unless someone comes up with a cheap (and possibly less bulky/massive) way to propel things into orbit I don't see there being a lot of commercial space flight. Just costs too much with any probable technology. Remember you're not just lifting the mass of the person but also the fuel needed, thus more fuel is needed, thus more mass, eventually you reach a break even point but that takes a lot of expensive fuel.

Sure there will be research and limited space manufacturing (some nice things you can do in zero-g) and of course the rich and powerful may go simply because they can, but I just don't foresee even moderate amounts of commercial space travel. Unless of course they actually do build a beanstalk. Last I looked it was possible with current composite materials (need the high strength/low mass). But such a thing would be a MASSIVE investment and since the world of CP2077 is run by corps not national governments the bottom line for any project is - Is it profitable?

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Wasn't there some sort of unique resources in orbit? Orbital Crystal and Steel or something? Weren't they amazing and superior?

 

[Suhiira]

Wasn't there some sort of unique resources in orbit? Orbital Crystal and Steel or something? Weren't they amazing and superior?

Yeah, CP has delt with some orbital structures and such, but conveniently ignores the costs of getting stuff and people to orbit.

 

[andrewmeythaler]

IIRC they mention that the European Communities space agency made several break throughs in space travel making it cheaper.

Space was one of those things he got very wrong. That being said he was right about the decline in NASA funding.

 

[Tramp-Graphics]

Egads! I seem to have tripped on a Pony! A Pony of Silly Politics!

 

[Suhiira]

IIRC they mention that the European Communities space agency made several break throughs in space travel making it cheaper.

"Cheaper" of course being relative. It's still hardly what anyone would consider even remotely commercially viable.

 

[andrewmeythaler]

"Unlike his parents, 2020's student doesn't even have to crack a book to study his history lesson. He can call up the university library and download all the History 101 texts to his personal computer, then read them at his leisure... All of this has changed the way people learn. With information so easy to obtain, modem education no longer emphasizes rote memorization, but rather the management and analysis of information. Students are taught to sift the important information from the unimportant, and to synthesize conclusions from the result. The universities that can afford it, like NCU, make frequent use of computers in the classroom. Students still gather with teachers for group discussions, but they spend much of their class time in the multi-curriculum study cubicles absorbing their lessons" (Pondsmith, et all, 1991, pg. 141).

Pondsmith M, et all. (1991). Night City.

 

[Suhiira]

"Unlike his parents, 2020's student doesn't even have to crack a book to study his history lesson. He can call up the university library and download all the History 101 texts to his personal computer, then read them at his leisure... All of this has changed the way people learn. With information so easy to obtain, modem education no longer emphasizes rote memorization, but rather the management and analysis of information. Students are taught to sift the important information from the unimportant, and to synthesize conclusions from the result. The universities that can afford it, like NCU, make frequent use of computers in the classroom. Students still gather with teachers for group discussions, but they spend much of their class time in the multi-curriculum study cubicles absorbing their lessons" (Pondsmith, et all, 1991, pg. 141).

Pondsmith M, et all. (1991). Night City.

Yeah ...
I roll my eyes every time I give some young clerk an odd amount of money when paying for something because I want to get quarter dollars back as change ... I need them for the laundry machines in my apartment complex ... and they look totally baffled, I just tell them to ring it up in fancy computerized cash register and it'll make sense.
Or god forbid I do a mental conversion to/from metric or use the multiplication tables I memorized as a kid ... leaves half of them speechless.

I'm sorry but a certain amount of rote memorization IS needed so you have a basis for "management and analysis of information".

 

[andrewmeythaler]

For better or worse he was right

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

Yeah ...
I roll my eyes every time I give some young clerk an odd amount of money when paying for something because I want to get quarter dollars back as change ... I need them for the laundry machines in my apartment complex ... and they look totally baffled, I just tell them to ring it up in fancy computerized cash register and it'll make sense.
Or god forbid I do a mental conversion to/from metric or use the multiplication tables I memorized as a kid ... leaves half of them speechless.

I'm sorry but a certain amount of rote memorization IS needed so you have a basis for "management and analysis of information".

Screw metric. Worst part of the UK joining the EU for me is that I can't go to the butcher and ask for a pound of sausages because they just give me £1 worth.

.454kg is 1 lb
1kg is 2.2 lb
2.27kg is 5 lb

.304m is 1ft
.914m is 3ft (1 yard)
1m is 3.28ft

1km is .62 miles
1.61km is 1 mile

And importantly, 12.7mm is .50 calibre :smiling2:

That stuff all stays in my head all the time so I can deceminate it to the unwashed masses and terrify them with magic, like being able to do maths without a calculator or know something without asking google, or worse yet, Siri...

 

[Nomad_Xenon]

UK using metric system!!?? Although EU tried to impose that system, finally it delegated the decision to each member country (as far as I know). Don't worry you could keep ordering your pints of beer.

For me al the knowledge of the anglo-saxon system comes from roleplaying games, and since I've been buying books in english for a long long time now I'm a bit used to that system.

 

[Suhiira]

Last I looked Burma, Liberia, and the USA were the only nations still officially not using the metric system.

 

[andrewmeythaler]

Holy shit. Reading through "Home of the Brave" source book, and realizing that Mike somehow predicted the NSA spying.

 

[Suhiira]

The NSA was created to specialize in electronic evesdropping.
OF COURSE they're spying on everyone/everything!
If they weren't they couldn't very well do their job.