<OT> oh, my

[David A. Bandel]

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On Sat, 17 Jan 2004 11:39:32 -0600
Alma J Wetzker <almaw at ieee.org> wrote:

> Michael Hipp wrote:
> > David A. Bandel wrote:
> >  > Chicken and egg problem.  Study transportation.
> > 
> >>
> >> Until you get roads in, you can't get industry in, and industry
> >won't> build the roads, government must.  The government must provide
> >the first> chicken (road), then once it produces an egg (industry
> >builds down that> road), all else will follow.  (Transportation 101 -
> >a topic I used to> teach.)
> > 
> > 
> > Yes. A good analogy and a good point. But arguably government has 
> > already done that and now it is time for the Rush of '49 to begin.
> > 
> 
> There is still a big difference between blazing a trail and building a
> road. The only vehicles that got us to the moon were all custom build
> jobs, the shuttles are not much better.  The analogy fails only in
> that the trail we have needs a vehicle that will travel it reliably
> and (hopefully) safely.

Problem is still the same:  transportation.  I used specifically roads. 
However, there are thriving communities here in Panama that have no
roads, only airports or seaports.  Someone must build the
infrastructure.  That infrastructure consists of something public to
travel (even if it's only permission to fly through the restricted
airspace from 18000 to 60000 feet up, but it also takes a vehicle only
governments can afford), and someplace public to go once you get up
there (seaport, airport, spaceport).  Hotels will be handled by the
private sector once the private citizen can get to it.  More private
sector will come if this is a stop-off or some place to travel through
to another destination.  It's terminal destinations (in the sense of no
place beyond to go vice terminal as in death) that don't offer much
allure -- although death offers little allure for most of us.

Goverment (NASA) blazed a trail.  So did Louis and Clark.  It's what
came after that counts.  So far with NASA, it's nothing.  After Louis
and Clark a lot of government programs happened to open up the West. 
Space hasn't yet been opened up.  That will happen after scramjets or
something else allows affordable travel.  This will have to be overcome
to colonize the moon and eventually Mars.

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
- -- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
		Nemesis Racing Team motto
GPG key autoresponder:  mailto:david_key at pananix.com
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