The
standard needs to be set higher
Allow me to present an
example in principle:
When Admiral
Hyman George Rickover (the longest-serving naval officer in U.S.
history with 63 years of active duty) was looking for a higher-order power
plant for the nation's submarine fleet in the late 1940s, he had no option
but to create from scratch a new science platform, a new education platform, and a new
industry, all for this single purpose of achieving his higher-order goal.
And he succeed. His achievement revolutionized marine propulsion, and it became
the seed-kernel for what is now the world's civilian nuclear power program.
(More than 150 naval vessels using nuclear propulsion have been built, and
on the civilian side, in 2009, 15% of the world's electricity came from nuclear power, despite
reservations, protests, and sabotage.)
 -
- 
It is being said that Admiral Rickover had the text of an ancient scripture hanging above his
desk in those days of great movements in scientific and technological
development:
"Where there is no
vision, the people perish."
Evidently the
Admiral's vision has never been dim,
but has brought a dynamism to a wide field of development that he knew would
be needed for his appointed task to succeed. And how shall we measure the
gain achieved for mankind?
Sure, we (mankind)
went to the moon. We 'owned' the moon for three years. We stood stall as
an example of what can be achieved, when we stood on the moon, and then
became small again. We became as small as the "Grinch that stole
Christmas." Maybe we should learn from the Grinch whose heart grew 3
sizes one day, with which he stood taller than ever before. And this means
3 orders of magnitude, which adds up to a thousand-fold growth for our
heart. Shouldn't we try to mach that? The standard of the Universe is a
100,000 fold gain. When an atom is born its size is 100,000 larger than
the sum of its parts. Surely, we are qualified to match that.
What
would this imply
for standing tall again?
We have leaned in the
science of electronics that the impedance throughout a dynamic system must
match at every stage, from the power source to the power sink. This
reflects a universal principle that we cannot bypass. This principle also
defines the dynamics of our next moon mission. The scope of the mission
itself is also defined by another universal principle, that of natural growth.
Considering the
principle of natural growth, there is
no point in going back to the moon to repeat what has already been
accomplished. The next mission, in order to be meaningful, must have to be a higher-order mission.
Such a mission needs to built on what has been accomplished. It cannot
simply be a repeat of it, but must move forward from it towards a
higher-order achievement such as, for example, setting up a science city
on the moon, with a supporting industrial base, which together enable
mankind to utilize the unique environment the moon offers, including it
serving as a low gravity jumping-off base towards more distant targets,
such as mars.
If the above example would be
the chosen higher-order mission for our next step in space exploration, it would enable us to stand tall
again with a higher achievement that we are capable of as human
beings. Of course this higher-order mission would not be possible without
upgrading the entire underlying system to the same higher-order dynamics,
from the very grassroots level up, of human living. In the 1960s
this dynamic impedance-matching was achieved throughout the entire system.
Everything was brought up to a matching level. The
economic power was brought up to level; the industrial power largely
existed; the social power, scientific power, and also
political power, were quickly created or upgraded. Everything that
was needed to match the scope of the Apollo mission was brought into
existence. It was done with relative ease, because the foundation already
existed in American culture. Unfortunately, much of that doesn't exist
anymore, nor would it be sufficient if did exist.
A
higher-order mission would require a complete upgrade of the entire dynamic
system that we call civilization, to match the higher-order dynamics of the new mission.
This
upgrading would have to start with housing. With housing begins the platform
for civilization. Quality housing enables intellectual, cultural, and social advances. The
current waste in this arena prevents the development of the human power to
the required level, on
which mankind's future now depends. A higher-order housing platform, for
example, would one where
high-quality housing is produced in automated industrial processes with
such efficiency, that the housing can be given away for free as a investment of
mankind into itself towards upgrading the human power-base. This startup capability would also prevent the wasteful commuting
practice that is so prevalent today. The
upgrading of the human power-base would also have to include free
education and free universal healthcare, which would have to be based on
the same kind of efficient platform where financial factors play a
subservient role. Of course, doing all this, would require the same
higher-order dynamics in energy production, both nuclear and beyond
nuclear, and likewise in food production in automated indoor agricultural
facilities. A moon 'city' would absolutely require these, just as we
require these for our dynamic future all across the Earth.
See: The
Intercontinental Floating Bridge
and: How
to Recover a Robbed Nation
There is no point then
in
even thinking about a new moon mission, without at the same time becoming committed
to universal (free) housing;
'free' education; 'free' health care; 'free' efficient transportation;
indoor agriculture; and higher order power systems, with all of them to be
put firmly into place at the same time. If a single one of these dynamic factors is left out, a new
moon mission won't be possible, and without a new moon-mission becoming
fully implemented as the next step in standing tall, what is necessary for
society to develop and survive won't
be possible either. To dream about one without a commitment to the
other is foolish self-deceit. A higher-order mission must unfold in
lock-step with a higher-order development of human power. Without
high-quality housing, education, health care, power systems, and humanist
culture, the technologies and industries won't be created on which the
future depends. In a very real way, NASA is but the capstone of a large pyramided
of higher-order achievements that in a dynamic system operates broad and wide underneath
it, feeding into it.
Saving NASA requires the upgrading of the whole of civilization to the
higher level required for mankind to stand tall once again in a new way.
Only then can NASA play its role in enriching civilization at the leading
edge. Without the dynamic power supporting it from below that matches in
every aspect of civilization the quality of its higher-order mission, NASA
will stand as but an empty shell. This might mean that the role of NASA
must be expanded to spearhead education, indoor agriculture,, healthcare, transportation,
and human living, above all spearhead electric-power development, both in
nuclear-fission power, and in tapping into the galactic power-flow that
powers the Sun..
See: Absolute
Power - 'Solar' Power
and: The Electric
Universe
Isn't this the manner in
which the historic Apollo space program has unfolded? It unfolded as an integrated element of a large stepping stone into the future,
that also included a higher-order magnitude in human living that at the
time matched that of the necessary achievement in space. And this is what
we need to do again with higher-order goals and a more powerful dynamics
throughout the system. Sure, getting there poses a few challenges, but those can meet.
Of
course we can't stop there, can we?
Nothing qualifies for
standing tall, unless we can stand tall and face the coming Ice Age down,
which threatens to be soon upon us.
See: No
Ice Age Allowed - we can block it (spirit - part 3)
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