Seth Godin posted a thought on how enormity (something that is really horrible) is a bad marketing tool because people stay away from huge problems which are have horrible consequences. Mr. Godin pointed out how infomercials asking for donations starving and sick kids are ineffective because the problem is huge. If the problem was small, people would rush to help, but ending world hunger is a massive task.
So would space habitation. Based on Seth's post, I think the size of space habitation is pushing people away from the idea of space habitation. "If [we've] got a small, fixable problem, people will rush to help, because people like to be on the winning side, take credit and do something that worked." 1. There is no away we can make space habitation easier, it is going to be a macro-engineering project regardless of the planning. But, in order to increase public support, we can make the public fell like the pro-space habitation side is the winning side. We have to give our supporters credit and parade them as supports and we MUST prove that this will work. That's hard for us because space habitation is a multi-generational plan. Current supports can't stand on the finish line. Maybe we can give each generation a goal in the path to space habitation to reach, but we must give people the 3 things Seth Godin points out to get them to help to build space habitation.
Reactions
-Can people who will not be alive when the team wins still fell like they are working on something valuable?
Resources
Godin, Seth, “Enormity" Weblog entry. Title of Weblog. September 02, 2009. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/enormity.html
In Case You Skimmed
- The amount of work needed for space habitation to work is scaring people away from space habitation.
