I very much liked Mary Anne's response, especially the line about "Balkanizing" political support for space. That's what's happened over the years.

I suspect that it happened because politicians play a zero-sum game. They set space advocates against one another by getting us to believe that for one pet project to proceed, somebody else's project has to be denied. Robots versus humans is the root categorical example; and there are many lesser artificial conflicts, such as Moon versus Mars. When we try to push for expanding the size of the overall pie, politicians tell us it's space versus human needs, or space versus security. There are many levels to the zero-sum game.

We can't look to politicians for the answer. We have to tell them what our priorities are. When the politicians say that $50 billion over ten years for a Mars program is insane, we need to point out that the Bush Regime thinks nothing of committing $100 billion to $1 trillion to fight a discretionary war. We have to hang on to perspective and not let politicians dictate reality to us.

Even though your premise was wrong, SDAI-Tech1, this has proved to be a useful exercize. It's reminded us what brought us to the Zone in the first place and what we have in common. You meant to divide, but you ended up bringing us together.

--Robert