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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | Many people are opposed to space exploration. While the overall budget of {{w|NASA}} is not very large compared to the big spenders such as health, education, social services and the military, individual space missions seem very expensive to the general public (typically hundreds of millions of dollars) and the actual benefits derived from them can seem intangible. To put it simply, many people think that the money can be better spent on Earth, where there are real, serious problems that need to be addressed. However, unbeknown to most, NASA not only makes back the money we spent on it (only about 33 dollars), but actally gains several billion dollars. It also provides hundreds of thousands of jobs, and things like GPS, cell phone service, the modern computer, the modern cellphone, and CAT scanner. Pretty good for costing less than a Netflix supscription.
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| | + | The comic is, at its core, a parody of the overly optimistic scientism that often attaches itself to the idea of a manned Mars mission, which in the minds of its supporters is always "ten to fifteen years away," no matter the unsolved technical or logistics challenges that are still standing in the way. |
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| − | The decision on how to best allocate our money is not a simple one. [[White Hat]] believes we should not explore space until "we have solved all our problems here on Earth". This is unreasonable, as the objective is vague, broad and near-impossible to achieve, at least within the span of a human life.{{citation needed}} The basic problems that face us all - war, disease, hunger, climate change, natural disasters, general malaise - have been with us since the dawn of humanity at least, and will certainly be around for much longer than ten or fifteen years; in fact, it is unclear if some of these problems will ever be solved. As of 2024, eleven years after this comic, it seems humanity has rather created more problems than it solved. Let's hope humanity can achieve the goal by 2028 then. | + | The suggestion of [[White Hat]] is ridicolous, because "all our problems" on Earth is very vague, and represents a large, clustered set of big and small problems, often causing each other, or colliding. |
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| − | Cueball, however, is playing the naive engineer, thinking that everything is as easy and simple as the math problems he uses everyday. Alternatively, he could be replying sarcastically, knowing that there is no timeline for solving all of Earth's problems. This serves two purposes: First, it highlights the untenability of White Hat's statement by emphasizing their size, and second, it serves as a punchline, as anyone with a modicum of common sense knows nothing is that simple when humans are involved.
| + | While the title text admits that there are a lot of problems, just considering the largest ones, like famine, diseases, energy, climatic changes, and wars, it would be unrealistic to think we could solve them in fifteen years, when humanity has been struggling with most of them since its appearance on Earth (and caused a series of them personally). It seems that, if we really wanted to solve all of our problems before exploring more planets, we would, in fact, never explore them. One could argue, however, that by exploring before we do, we'd be only worsening our problems by wasting resources, or leeching resources from other planets (while unrealistic at this phase) to solve our problems by causing problems elsewhere, so the reasoning isn't completely baseless, while the timeline set is unrealistic. |
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| − | In the title text, Randall leans towards fifteen years, as ten doesn't seem sufficient, given all the problems. This also may be said by Cueball, or White Hat replying to Cueball.
| + | The argument between exploring space vs saving resources and solving problems on Earth is a pretty common one. |
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | :[Cueball and White Hat stand talking. White Hat is making a forward gesture with his hand.] | + | : |
| − | :White Hat: We shouldn't be exploring other planets until we've solved all our problems here on Earth.
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| − | :Cueball: Sounds reasonable. So, what's the timeline on "Solving all problems"? Ten years? Fifteen?
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
| | [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]] | | [[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]] |
| | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] |
