Post by auntym on Sept 24, 2014 11:33:38 GMT -6
www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/04/isaac-asimov-muppets-magazine-1983/?utm_content=buffer36969&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Isaac Asimov on Curiosity, Taking Risk, and the Value of Space Exploration in Muppet Magazine
by Maria Popova
“To make discoveries, you have to be curious about why the universe is the way it is.”
In the summer of 1983, Muppet Magazine invited science fiction icon Isaac Asimov — sage of science, champion of creativity in education, visionary of the future, lover of libraries — to “a meeting of the minds,” wherein Dr. Julius Strangepork would interview Asimov. Despite the silly tone of German-inspired Strangepork-speak, the wide-ranging conversation touches on a number of timeless and surprisingly timely issues.
Three decades before the precarious state of space exploration we face today, as NASA is implementing new “cost-saving measures” at the expense of education and public outreach, Asimov speaks to the enormous cultural benefits of space exploration:
Dr. S: Personally, I like hanging around in space. I mean, it beats vatching reruns of de Brady Bunch. But how do you convince other people dat we should be schpending all dis money on space exploration?
Dr. A: By pointing out the benefits. The more we know about the solar system, the better we understand the earth. The very instruments we develop to explore the planets mean that we have better technology for use here on earth.
We now have weather satellites that tell us, for the first time in history, what the weather on the earth as a whole is like. Until we had these weather satellites, forecasting was nothing more than a local guess. We have satellites that study the resources of the earth, so that we know a great deal more about, for instance, where there are sick forests, or where grain is being attacked by some sort of disease, or how to locate oil. And, of course, communication satellites have bound the entire earth together.
CONTINUE READING: www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/04/isaac-asimov-muppets-magazine-1983/?utm_content=buffer36969&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Isaac Asimov on Curiosity, Taking Risk, and the Value of Space Exploration in Muppet Magazine
by Maria Popova
“To make discoveries, you have to be curious about why the universe is the way it is.”
In the summer of 1983, Muppet Magazine invited science fiction icon Isaac Asimov — sage of science, champion of creativity in education, visionary of the future, lover of libraries — to “a meeting of the minds,” wherein Dr. Julius Strangepork would interview Asimov. Despite the silly tone of German-inspired Strangepork-speak, the wide-ranging conversation touches on a number of timeless and surprisingly timely issues.
Three decades before the precarious state of space exploration we face today, as NASA is implementing new “cost-saving measures” at the expense of education and public outreach, Asimov speaks to the enormous cultural benefits of space exploration:
Dr. S: Personally, I like hanging around in space. I mean, it beats vatching reruns of de Brady Bunch. But how do you convince other people dat we should be schpending all dis money on space exploration?
Dr. A: By pointing out the benefits. The more we know about the solar system, the better we understand the earth. The very instruments we develop to explore the planets mean that we have better technology for use here on earth.
We now have weather satellites that tell us, for the first time in history, what the weather on the earth as a whole is like. Until we had these weather satellites, forecasting was nothing more than a local guess. We have satellites that study the resources of the earth, so that we know a great deal more about, for instance, where there are sick forests, or where grain is being attacked by some sort of disease, or how to locate oil. And, of course, communication satellites have bound the entire earth together.
CONTINUE READING: www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/04/isaac-asimov-muppets-magazine-1983/?utm_content=buffer36969&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer