[extropy-chat] Diaspora was Bluff and the Darwin award

[Adrian Tymes]

I agree with most of what you say, but a couple nits (so you can
fine-tune this argument when not preaching to the choir):

--- KAZ <kazvorpal at yahoo.com> wrote:
> You may recall that, in 1999, they "installed a computer upgrade"
> into the Hubble...but what they didn't explain, when bragging about
> this, was that the "upgrade" was a 486 motherboard. At a time when
> even my crappiest backup machine at home had a Pentium in it, they
> considered a 486 to be an improvement worth spending millions to fly
> up and install.

There is an old line about regular computer vs. "space-rated",
hardened computers, intended to be able to run even when exposed to
cosmic rays (which even astronauts are usually somewhat shielded
from).  Development of hardened computers lags development of normal
computers by quite a few years, in part due to the much smaller
market.  A 486 might well have been the best "space-rated" CPU there
was available at the time.

Now, because of the insular market, it may be hard to tell if that's
complete BS, but it sounds like it at least might be true.

Your example about being pulled off for fake emergencies carries much
more weight.

> Or, better still, just yank the NASA budget it entirely and used the
> money to reduce the budget deficit,

Drop In The Bucket.  This exact proposal has been made many times, and
found that it would do practically nothing against the deficit.  I'd
reccomend sticking to proposing that NASA's budget be doled out to the
top X-Prize contenders - or maybe that NASA's budget be devoted
entirely to their X-Prize-like Centennial Challenges program (thus,
the rest of the agency would be scrapped), on the condition that said
program remain a prize granting agency and be specifically forbidden
from ever entering into any cost-plus contracts.