While doing research for my education philosophy paper (my final paper for high school, wooot), I came across the TED talk The real crisis? We stopped being wise given by Barry Schwartz. I think his words can be applied to any field, any task and every action we take. Incentives and punishments, as Barry Schwartz points out, do not work. I feel they will not work in space. But, this is what makes human space flight special. I feel those who are in the space field have a certain wisdom. It's found outside of this field, yes, and, yes, there are a few dull bulbs in the space flight. But, I feel that the vast majority of the people in space will resonate with Barry Schwartz's words. Not just agree with him, but feel a connection to his argument the runs down to the soul. This philosophy must be buried deep within the space habitation movement because it will guide us on unmade trails and unknown obstacles.
Photo by alicepopkorn
Here's the video if you want to watch it. It's 20 minutes long, so I quoted the best parts for this blog post. But, Barry Schwartz is a great speaker and really makes a convincing argument. Plus, it makes my job easier if you watch it. Your time will not be wasted by watching this video... relative to the other youtube videos that we all know you watch.
Real-world problems are often ambiguous and ill-defined and the context is always changing. A wise person is like a jazz musician -- using the notes on the page, but dancing around them, inventing combinations that are appropriate for the situation and the people at hand.
The space program has ignored the rules. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project is my primary example. This project occurred, not only during the cold war, but in the same year of the Vietnam war, which was basically a war between the USSR and the USA, but with puppets. If NASA and the Soviet Space Program followed the rules, we would have seen the first war in space. Both sides where trying to stop the spread of the other's ideologies and, if the programs followed the textbook, they should have gone to war, at the very least ignore the other side. But, this was not done. They talked to each other. These two countries who where just at war and had nuclear weapons aimed at each other had their astronauts and cosmonauts shaking hands in space. Americans climbed in to Russian vehicles and visa-versa. This shouldn't have happened. The administrators and engineers of both space programs showed incredible wisdom though this act. If we continue to toss out the rules in space, we will see a multinational team in the first space habitation. Because the rules still say we should be fearful of other nations. I believe, after man achieved the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, that space programs will ignore these social rules - the very rules which will lead to humanity's destruction.
In Switzerland back about 15 years ago they were trying to decide where to site nuclear waste dumps. There was going to be a national referendum. Some psychologists went around and polled citizens who were very well informed. And they said, "Would you be willing to have a nuclear waste dump in your community?" Astonishingly, 50 percent of the citizens said yes. They knew it was dangerous. They thought it would reduce their property values. But it had to go somewhere and they had responsibilities as citizens. The psychologists asked other people a slightly different question. They said, "If we paid you six weeks' salary every year would you be willing to have a nuclear waste dump in your community?" Two reasons. It's my responsibility and I'm getting paid. Instead of 50 percent saying yes, 25 percent said yes. What happens is that the second this introduction of incentive gets us so that instead of asking, "What is my responsibility?" all we ask is, "What serves my interests?"
It's because of the above quote that I fear the promise of fortunes in space will be the Achilles heel the space habitation movement. In my experience of talking to others about space habitation, claiming that we should have a space habitation because it cool is a much more effective argument then human extinction or profit. Simply put, incentives and punishments will not power the space habitation movement. They will give us creditability, but something will be at the core of our mission. I don't know what it is, the space habitation idea hasn't lived this long because it cool. We need a rallying call, a moral obligation that space habitation fulfills. Again, I'm not sure what it is, but this obligation has keep this dream alive for many year, it will lead to it's fulfillment.
So I want to know, what did you take from this video.
