February 6 2018, Falcon Heavy: a great step forward for humankind


February 6, 2018

I don’t know if any of you folks were, or are, science fiction fans, but I once was. I gorged on such things in the '60s and '70s, then lost interest, except for occasionally rereading Larry Niven (Mount LookitThat) which many will no doubt snivel about, but which represented where I thought things were going.   
 
Anyway, Elon Musk today brought humanity into the real Space Age with the Falcon Heavy. If you can, watch those two  boosters landing simultaneously – that is something never before seen and now he makes it seem routine. Unbelievably awesome. 

We are on our way to space, as we should be, as we must do, IMCO, to give us time to evolve. Because putting the cork in the bottle and saying we must stay on the planet to solve our problems first seems just Quixotically ridiculous. Humans aren’t capable yet of solving all of our own problems. In our thousands of years of history we barely were capable of acknowledging women as people in the last hundred. Give me a break. We are not mature enough as a species yet to be confined with our nasty irrationality. See  United States of America since 2016.

There is a Holocaust denier about to be elected to office (unchallenged by any Republican) in Amerika – a former American Nazi party man. In the 21st Century. We are NOT evolved. Getting off the planet buys us time. Cannot recommend strongly enough Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, even though they are so far behind out-there thought now. True classics. In the meantime, let's try to avoid nuclear war, choking on our own plastic garbage, and electing Nazis.
            
That being said, the winter of 2018 is an auspicious one. Both for humankind and personally. Falcon Heavy passed its test. I have been offered a Teaching Fellowship at Queen’s. I will publish my fourth novel in the Smithyman Saga, The King's Salt (book cover below). My daughter got another promotion at FixMeStick! Press on, and damn the torpedoes!

Cheers!!

 

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