Industrial Automation

"Without a vision, the people perish." I'm probably applying this rather outside its Scriptural context, but the point I want to make is that a nation needs a vision and goals beyond daily comfort and recreational pursuits. For many Americans, the moon program was a great inspiration. For those directly involved there were many intellectual and practical challenges to overcome.

The technology used for Apollo had tremendous technical benefits far beyond the program, even though there were occasional tragic results (for example, Velcro was the solution to many little problems, but its explosive flammability in pure oxygen contributed to the fire that killed three astronauts at the beginning of the Apollo program.) The case can be made that the discovery, research and exploratory value of the actual moon landings was minimal and could have been done more cheaply that with manned missions. However, the risk of failure without humans along to react and improvise solutions would have been much greater; our remote piloting technology was much less than it is today. A great part of the task was making it possible for humans to go there; this is what made getting there so much a part of the fun.

The American people need a similar grand challenge to engage our strength and skill, to inspire us to reach farther and higher. It should be something that will employ the enthusiastic efforts of tens of thousands, with benefits reaching well beyond those involved, even if the direct gain, like Apollo's, is in the end only intellectual. We cannot expect it to be without risk; there is no such thing as a risk-free grand challenge. We have no interest in conquering other nations; that's been done before by other nations, and causes more problems than it's worth. There is little unexplored land for the taking, unless we want to renege on our international agreement not to exploit Antarctica.

The space exploration and exploitation we have done since then seems realizable only to a few interested researchers, even though space-based communications and navigation have become everyday features for most of us. The International Space Station is basically a very expensive laboratory for a very few researchers, and in any case is not uniquely American as Apollo was.

A worthy challenge must be something new, a frontier not previously crossed or crossed by very few. There are two physical frontiers for us to conquer. The moon is still very much open; we have not gone beyond a quick reconnaissance. There are possibilities for establishing a base from which to launch further exploration, but like Apollo, the greater part of the effort will be earthbound. The moon, and beyond, will be the ultimate frontier, if space can be made accessible to more than a few people with great riches at their disposal. We are not quite to the stage of those who crossed the oceans in Fifteenth-century sailing vessels - and even then, few could do it, and it was difficult and dangerous. The development of practical large-scale spacecraft is an enormous task by itself. Nevertheless, such an undertaking must have at least an explainable potential of great economic benefit, lest it become just another government boondoggle.

The other frontier is the sea. There are vast resources on the sea floor. Much of our food comes from the ocean, but we can no longer rely on the hunter-gatherer operations that have fed mankind for centuries; we have grown too numerous for that. We need to develop means to live in, not just on the sea, to farm its biological resources in a renewable manner just as we do in land-based agriculture. The great challenge is to master the sea without breaking it; to extract what we need in an economical fashion without destroying the oceanic environment, and to take advantage of what we have learned about preserving its ecosystems while using it to our benefit. The sea and its resources are accessible to far more people than space, but developing it in a responsible manner is no simple task.

America still has vast amounts of intellectual and material resources at its disposal. Part of what uniquely qualifies us to meet grand challenges is our tradition of individual liberty. Each person is free to choose his own way to participate, to make a part of the challenge his personal endeavor. The government that once led us on the great Apollo Moon Race is in danger of collapsing into a fascist dictatorship crippled by unimaginable debt. If we allow ourselves to be bound to an endless grind of paying for vast and ever-growing social welfare programs or to turn inward and focus only on hedonistic pleasures, we will forfeit our ability to explore new frontiers; to provide mankind with the benefits of wondrous discoveries and valuable technology.

It is time for America to turn away from growing government and back to growing persons. Will we meet the challenge? All we need from government is a means of protecting our investments, as the Homestead Act did in the 19th century. Part of this protection will involve some general liability-based environmental regulation; for cluttering space with debris will limit access for everyone, and polluting the ocean will likewise reduce its value for everyone. However, we do not need a counterproductive Law of the Sea that over-regulates and promises to confiscate a significant part of our gain for the benefit of those who contributed nothing to our efforts. The responsibility of government is to protect life, liberty and property, otherwise it must be made to stand back, get out of the way, and let us get to work!