Friday 23 July 2021

I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar

 I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar

A few thoughts have come to mind recently and I wish to "give vent" to them. I'm sure that many have had these same thoughts before me and probably have expressed them better...

But anyway...


I have enjoyed the television show "Firefly" and I re-watch it every so often. As a long time player of the sci-fi RPG Traveller, the show seemed to me to be influenced by the game although it took it's own direction.

Many people have bemoaned the end of the show so soon. I'm not sure why it ended; maybe it was too good. But it ended and people who liked it have missed it, the characters in it, and the setting.

What if the show had gone on for a number of seasons? How would it have fared?

I'm guessing here, but I feel it would have been on for a number of years and then cancelled. It might have become stale and cast personalities might have clashed to cause an end. Then it would have been analyzed and picked apart and become a cult show for a small number. It would have been forgotten by many.

As it is, it has become a legend in it's own right and taken on a life of it's own. Personal opinion: It might be better this way. It ended as it began: on a constant high note. Continuing on would have made it "just another TV show." Now it is much more.

What's in this load?

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Rich people can go to space. We ask why they didn't feed the hungry and clothe the naked. The answer might be "What glory is in that for me?" A number of people I know are disgusted by these displays of wealth and refusal to use wealth for the betterment of all. I might be one of them.

However we'd best get used to it. Corporate exploration of space is on the way and is coming. The wealthy and the large corporations will continue to do this. I suppose there's money to be made in space... somehow. I don't think governments can be quite so single-minded.

Didn't science-fiction literature and movies/shows tell us this? Babylon 5 shows many non-governmental corporate bodies exploring the universe. The author, Poul Anderson, wrote an entire series of related books and stories about the Polesotechnic League, a loosely-bound bunch of corporate "traders to the stars" as it were. (Look up "Hanseatic League.") Frank Herbert's Dune has the CHOAM Corporation. Our own histories tell us this, to use the Hudson's Bay Company and the British or Dutch East India Companies as only two examples out of many.

It may be disgusting and aggravating and unjust in a larger sense of justice. And it may be what will happen. We'd best be prepared.


 
                                    

Of course, all this is only my opinion.

2 comments:

  1. Sadly I think you're correct.
    Lichtenstein and Belgium have already positioned themselves to be the legal/financial history for future asteroid mining

    And you didn't mention The Expanse which has a very privatized corporate outer space

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    Replies
    1. I've not seen The Expanse, but it doesn't surprise me.

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