Why are people so apathetic about space?

[kmMango]

Space doesn't impact most people directly on a daily basis. It is something most only read about. With so much to worry about on a daily basis, most people lack the time or mental ability to seriously consider it.

[Creature]

Strictly speaking, 50% of people are of above average intelligence...

But the huge majority of people have an above average number of legs. This has to count for something.

[lajoswinkler]

Yeah, I've had times where I was complaining about work being totally derailed by some Windows crash, and people going "you use the computer too hard" - that's pretty much an instant perma-ban from me.

I remember asking some Mac user why the scanner kept crashing, and he said "that image is too intense for it" - of course it was a flaky SCSI driver, but to this day, I still have a knee-jerk stereotype that Mac users are idiots.

Yesterday I said "people in the South might even be dumber than usual" and an hour after that post, I saw this

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27442541

Average IQ correlates with the standard of living. It's because of early childhood nutrition and amount and quality of social interaction, so such news are hardly a surprise. Feed your kid with crappy food, ignore them, and chances are you'll raise a dumbass. It's nature and nurture, but in this case, and statistically speaking, it's mostly nurture.

[Seret]

But the huge majority of people have an above average number of legs.

That's an absolutely awesome statistic, must remember that one.

[kmMango]

Yesterday I said "people in the South might even be dumber than usual" and an hour after that post, I saw this

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-27442541

As an American, I have to ask: what happened to my country? We used to do moon landings. Now we can't launch a man into space, agree to fund our own government, and the next generation is going to be dumb as dirt. Why do I feel like I am witnessing the same decline to have hit every civilization to have ever existed? The worst part: we could stop it if we did something instead of just talking about it. Edited May 22, 2014 by kmMango

[CaptainGiblets]

^ Completely agree, America is killing it self slowly but no does anything to stop it, it just keeps getting worse. Every year a bigger government debt, lower test scores, it's awful

[kmMango]

And the worst part: in our democracy, only 60% of people vote, and then wonder why things don't change. It takes 20 MINUTES to fill out a ballot.

[NASAFanboy]

And the worst part: in our democracy, only 60% of people vote, and then wonder why things don't change. It takes 20 MINUTES to fill out a ballot.

No one cares.

We see the same politicans with their smiles and promises break them all the moment they enter office.

Nowadays, Congress is a election of two idiots...the smart people can't run because they don't support corporations and will try to get "renewable energy" all over the nation. Oil companies, especially the Koch brothers, don't like that.

[Valley]

People care, but they care about their jobs, their kid's educations, their nation's future. They don't see space as helping them within the next few years, or even in the next few decades, and those who do understand how we may profit from space don't see it profiting THEM but see it profiting businesses run by the 1% (I hate that term). In other words, they don't see it helping mankind just certain rich men who like to play with big toys. In other words it takes a person with long term vision to understand the importance of space and most people can't see beyond their children's next meal. Which is important to them (and IS important).

I love space myself but can't really get mad at those folks who are trying their best to live for their family and kids.

[Seret]

It takes 20 MINUTES to fill out a ballot.

I don't know how much bureaucracy you have to wade through when voting in the states but I voted in the European elections yesterday and I was in and out of the polling station in about 3 minutes flat.

[lajoswinkler]

I don't know how much bureaucracy you have to wade through when voting in the states but I voted in the European elections yesterday and I was in and out of the polling station in about 3 minutes flat.

We're having European Union parliament elections on Sunday. So far every election I've been at could be done at 1 minute. You get there, you show your documents, they give you the paper, you go behind a screen to mark your selection, you fold the paper, put it in the box and retrieve documents. It think this is how it's been done for decades.

[Starwhip]

early 1960s: The Russians are beating us at everything! We need to show them what we can do! (SPACE! MOON! MARS!)

late 1960s: Space Race! We need to beat those damn commies and show them how much better we are! Space is new and interesting! (MOON! MARS!)

early 1970s: We're walking on the moon! Woohoo, we beat those dang Russians! We win! (Moon. Mars?)

late 1970s: Well, we did them capsule thing, the moon thing, the space station thing. What's next? Reusable spaceplane? Cheap access to space? Sounds new and exciting! Let's do this! (What moon?)

early 1980s: Space plane! Woohoo! You know, this isn't quite as cheap as they said it would be. At least we've got that big space station to build! (Those Russians don't have a space plane like this!)

mid '80s: Oh. Wow. You mean this is dangerous and people are dying? Maybe we should just give up! (Oh, hey. The Russians built one, too?)

late '80s, early '90s: Remember when we used to go to the moon? We should start thinking about that again. (By the way, whatever happened to that station?)

late '90s: Well, ok. Space station. Haven't we done that already? (We've been borrowing the neighbor's station for a while.)

early 2000s: Wait, this is still dangerous? Maybe we should just give up! Maybe we should think up a new plan to go to the moon. (Moon. Mars?)

mid 2000s: Woohoo! New program! Oh, are we still using those old things? (MOON! Mars?)

late 2000s: Well, I guess we weren't really using that program. No, you can take it. We're quite happy being in LEO for decades. (Moon?)

Now: Commercial space freighters are a thing that exists. Orion is well under way. And no one seems to know what we're going to actually end up doing with it. Every program we've seen recently has been canceled, the Russians and Chinese seem to be doing everything we used to, and we're told "Maybe next decade" if we ever ask "When?".

You mean like when SQUAD says, "Soon"?

But yeah, I get the point. The quote-unquote "average" citizen doesn't care about long-term plans for Humanity. The world is corrupt. Remember this quote, "Give life the best you've got, and life will kick you in the teeth. Give life the best you've got anyways." We should be taking this in our own hands, whether everyone else cares it or not.

[kmMango]

Just lines of people. Plus I actually think when I fill it out.

[Duxwing]

How do we know how interested people are in space? Perhaps we need not despair; e.g., at least four other kids at my school play Kerbal Space Program.

-Duxwing

[Comrade Jenkens]

I've tried to get friends into KSP but they just think its boring. :/ Not enough killing people for their taste.

[Duxwing]

I've tried to get friends into KSP but they just think its boring. :/ Not enough killing people for their taste.

I'm recovering from being a killing-game lover. The games twisted, bent, and broke my sympathy for other virtual chracters and horror at the nature of the game into a persistent sadomasochism toward the virtual 'enemy'. I am glad I quit.

-Duxwing

[Javster]

People also seem to think that to get to the Moon, you leave the engines on the whole time like you're driving a car.

The sheer idiocy (actually it's not their fault that no educational system anywhere teaches much about spaceflight) of people really frustrates me. Until recently, my dad thought there was only one Space Shuttle (that's not the worst offense by far)

What really, really annoys me is when people said "We're wasting money sending the olympic torch into space!!!" when it was sent up as extra cargo, not on its own...

[SemiaCloud]

I all of you people want to come live in Iceland (where I am), Not much people here know about spaceflight, but the population of Iceland right now is 323,002 so it should be easier to educate people/get them playing KSP.

[Bill Phil]

Partly because of how crappy the education system here in the US has become. I can't remember the last time we learned about spaceflight in school... yeah, pretty much never.

If people could be more interested in science instead of pop culture, sports, and social life. America stresses those too much, and we waste too much money on high school and college sports programs rather than educational programs. Imagine if at every school instead of having a giant [American] football field complex, that they built some sort of science laboratory with telescopes and chemistry/biology/any other field of science. That would really fuel STEM education (the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math kind).

No one even knows about Orion in schools, or the SLS, or any other future (or even the past!) space missions. My friend said, "How are we supposed to re-direct an asteroid?" after I told him about NASA's real life ARM mission. People also seem to think that to get to the Moon, you leave the engines on the whole time like you're driving a car.

That kind of facility at high schools would be awesome!

Push for more education for the budget.

[Motokid600]

Coming up on a year old thread here.

[xcorps]

And the worst part: in our democracy, only 60% of people vote, and then wonder why things don't change. It takes 20 MINUTES to fill out a ballot.

And it takes weeks to sit on a jury. And your vote doesn't matter as much as you seem to think it does. The President, for example, is not elected by you. Neither is anyone else in the Federal executive branch or the Federal court system. The most impact your vote has is in local elections, and then state. None of which has an impact on the amount of dollars spent to fund space exploration. Those funds come from the House of Representatives, and unless you live in 1 of seven states, there is a good possibility that YOUR representative will have to deal with a plurality if he or she does in fact want to increase space exploration funding as a matter of ideology.

The bigger question is where is the money going to come from? Only half of Americans pay any Federal Income tax. Are you going to raise taxes? Not on me, my Federal Income tax burden last year was $49,000. I couldn't care less if we find any more unknown stars, so no. You can't have any more of my money to pay for it. You going to take it from another branch of government? Good luck with that. There's a whole lot of recipients of that money that will be happy to fight for instead of funding zero-g experimentation on kidney stones.

[ChrisSpace]

Originally Posted by kmMango And the worst part: in our democracy, only 60% of people vote, and then wonder why things don't change. It takes 20 MINUTES to fill out a ballot.

And the bottom 95% of voters in the united states don't even have a say in what goes on, as their votes are not even taken into account. Things aren't much better here in Australia.

Back to topic, I believe people are uncaring and uneducated about space because it does not have any impact on their lives right now. Sure, we have satellites that do a bunch of important stuff, but for all people care those signals could be coming from a radio tower. Once we have civilian colonies being constructed on the moon and mars, things will change *waves SpaceX flag*

[Starwhip]

And the bottom 95% of voters in the united states don't even have a say in what goes on, as their votes are not even taken into account.

What are you talking about?!

[FishInferno]

Sigh, and I get weird looks when my classmates see me watching rocket launches on YouTube:/

[Vanamonde]

Please, let's not get into politics. That never ends well.