Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Its amazing how we are affected sub-consciously by stuff that we think so little about. Take for example gravity, a force that affects our everyday lives, abiet one that we take for granted. However did you ever notice how we are always climbing up the social ladder and going down the drains? How heaven is up above us but hell below?
Paradigms
Its interesting to note that gravity not only gives us a sense of up and down but also an aspiration to fight and overcome it. From the humble kites at East Coast park on a windy day, to the Boeing 747s to the rockets to the moon, its all a symbol of man's unwillingness to accept that gravity, and indeed any other force can pin us down. This has led us to expend large amounts of resource as a means to this end. In a single Apollo flight alone, enough power is converted to heat to warm a small city for a night. Thus this 'at any cost' response to gravity may not be the wisest decision.
Rationality
In the zest to conquer the skies and soar with the birds, i guess its somewhat easy to lose sight of things. Over the last decade, despite large scale-back in the arena of space exploration and aviation research, the total amount of money in this area still outstrips research into deep-sea phenomena. This is highly disturbing as the sea is the main source of ozone and oxygen and absorbs, by some estimates, 60-70% of the carbon dioxide in the world. A complex system of ocean currents keep the poles warmer and the equator cooler than what it should be. And yet given all this, we know more about the moon than we knoe about our seas.
Just stop the ego trip here. While its possoble to argue that a rock may smash into us, it is far more likely that we kill off our planet long before that eventuality. Lets get back down to Earth and perhaps examine wat we should, putting our money where its really useful.
9:00 PM
