Re: Why is Star Trek so robophobic?

Ken from Chicago wrote:
> "Steven L." <sdlitvin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:13pq5bea49u4o9e@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Victor Velazquez wrote:
>>> "David Johnston" <david@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
>>> news:tb2qp35ugd4r0gbkv6gibpo751ajivr12c@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> On Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:39:45 -0600, "Ken from Chicago"
>>>> <kwicker1b_nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> "Reading by the light of a lost Christmas day
>>>>>> It begins...."
>>>>>>
>>>>> They can't even use robots remotely controlled by the wonderful
humans?
>>>> What's so wonderful about a species of couch potatos?
>>> Ask all those rich guys in the Renaissance with nothing but time on
their 
>>> hands.
>> The difference is that back then, those rich idle guys were not the 
>> EXPLORERS.  They may have been artists, musicians  , etc.  But they
didn't 
>> man the ****ps.  The crews of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, 
>> Captain Cook, etc., had a whole lot of hard work and danger ahead of
them.
>>
>> If you show what robotics and automation will have progressed to by the

>> 23rd century, you beg the question of why humans are needed to explore 
>> space at all.  Which, in fact, is why humanity has stopped doing that 
>> since the Apollo moon landings ended.
> 
> I've been saying for decades space exploration should be done by
robots--tho 
> space colonization should be done by humans.

We tend to romanticize the explorers of the Renaissance and thereafter, 
but we forget that they were exploring for some very practical reasons, 
such as the spice trade and other trade with the empires of the East.

You could imagine an "alternate history" story, in which Leonardo da 
Vinci invents the first practical fully automated tall ****p.  Columbus, 
Ferdinand Magellan and the Dutch East India Company decide that's the 
most cost-effective way to do exploring.  So they all stay home in 
Europe and let the Da Vinci automated ****ps do the exploring for them.


-- 
Steven L.
Email:  sdlitvin@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 the NOSPAM before replying to me.