The Price of Humanity...

There are things in life that need to be invested in...not in an individualistic, make-your-nest-egg kind of way.

Humanity needs to invest in some key markets, for the sake of what we are, what we're capable of, and what we can become. And even for what we shouldn't become. If I had a fortune like Gates or control over government spending, how would I invest? Carefully. Radically.

Space travel.

The average life expectancy of a human being is increasing at an incredible rate. China's population increases annually by the total population of Australia. Natural resources are being used and used up with little thought to conservation by the majority of humanity.

Human beings are explorers. Conquerors.

Sure, it's all well and good to send shuttles to match orbit with Mir.

Tonight NEAR is passing overhead in another hour or two.

But what else is out there? Don't you want to know? Wouldn't you head out there if you could? What the hell kind of vacation would the Grand Canyon be in comparison to walking through the Mare Carborundum?

Science fiction regularly predicts the future...sometimes near, sometimes far. But we have several billion thinking, living, breathing human beings on our planet. If collectively we can't accomplish space travel, well, hell, we don't deserve what we've got. But me, I see computers that beat world chess champions by passing the most minute of electrical pulses through near-microscopic strands of gold. We built that. I see human hearts transplanted to save lives. Humans worked together on that, too.

Recent news brings cloned mammals and the discovery of how DNA ages, and why cancer cells differ from others in their aging process.

Trillions of miles of highway. Of buildings, of bridges. Human minds imagined them, human hands put design to paper, human hands crafted these things.

I want to go to space. Who's with me?

Where else should our resources, cash and otherwise, go? I have opinions about that.

I always have opinions. Never leave home without 'em.