[extropy-chat] balloon stations at the edge of space

[Adrian Tymes]

--- "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury at aeiveos.com> wrote:
> We could (with minimal effort) send hundreds, if not
> thousands of nuclear weapons to the moon.

Some people would protest that this would violate
international treaties.  (This would in theory
prohibit private efforts by a country's citizens
towards the banned activity, as well as officially
government-directed efforts.)  I could be wrong, but I
think the US never signed the specific one they're
talking about, though.

> I only want to plant in your
> minds the idea that we are *soooo* underfullfilling
> our potential.  As Extropes you may want to consider
> how that should be corrected.

Money, and lots of it.  More businesses founded to
develop and market the relevant advances would be a
start; so would radically increased government funding
of human improvement R&D.  (Military projects have
been one traditional source of pork barrel spending:
even today, military acquisitions routinely far exceed
what even the Pentagon and the DoD claim is wise.  One
suspects those institutions might not be displeased if
much of this excess spending was directed instead
towards improving the baseline human, be said human
soldier or civilian - not just by redirecting their
excess budget as they currently try to do, but by
making this R&D the "traditional" pork barrel that can
be performed, and thus money spent, in almost any
legislator's district.)