I stumbled across the late Randy Pausch's lecture on time management. In this lecture, he presented a revision to the tradition to-do list. In his modified to-do list, one would have 4 categories for the following types of tasks: important and urgent tasks; important, but not urgent tasks; not important nor urgent tasks and urgent, but not important tasks. I think this concept can be applied to society's to-do list.
Type one engineering would be the type of engineering that addresses urgent and important problems/needs. Type two engineering is the type of engineering that addresses important, but not urgent problems and needs. Right now, space habitation and all space activities are solely within the field of type two engineering. It is need urgent. But, in order for human society to move forward, we must address space before it become a type one need; an urgent and important need. We can be ok without the resources and room of space for another, I'm guessing here, 50 years. But, what we can not do is neglect the development of space habitation until it become and important need and urgent need.
We already see what happens when we ignore type two needs and wait until they become type one problems. We see this in global warming and the dwindling energy resources. It is coming to the point where human society can not even function without those two problem solved. We saw those two problems coming and we waited, now it is becoming urgent to address those two things. As if it was bad enough, type two engineering is easier then type one because type two engineers have the resource of time available to them.
Basically, the type one engineer is the person running around putting out society's fires. The type two engineer is the society's fire inspector, preventing those fires from even occurring. Let's look at NASA which is the prime example of a type 2 engineering organization. Space is important, don't get me wrong, but we will live till tomorrow without it. But, there will be a day where human society can not function without space. There might even be a day where human society can no longer grow and expand on this planet. If NASA needs becomes a type one engineering organization because society urgently needs space then space will be much harder then if space was accessed when NASA was a type 2 engineering organization. Society might even collapse if the need for public space access become urgent because that need wasn't fulfilled fast enough.
Basically, type one engineering is needed because of short term planning. Type two engineering is needed because of long term planning. The more long term plans we have, the more type two engineering occurs and our problem become less urgent as they are solved earlier.
Reactions
-Do you think space is already a type one need?
Resources
Pausch, Randy. "Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management"" February 06, 2008. Online video clip. YouTube. Accessed on August 27, 2009. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTugjssqOT0 >
In Case You Skimmed
- Space habitation is not an urgent need, if it become an urgent need, it will be much more difficult to meet the need.
