darkSpyro

America as a nation stopped going places long ago. Which is sad because I'm always thrilled to see new technological advancements, even if there was a war driver behind those advancements (I'm pretty much referring to the Space Race here).

If you want to know what the world will look like in a hundred years, I believe you'd have to go ask the 300 million Chinese teenagers/children what they want it to look like.

Quote: CAV

Quote: Samius

America as a nation stopped going places long ago. Which is sad because I'm always thrilled to see new technological advancements, even if there was a war driver behind those advancements (I'm pretty much referring to the Space Race here).

If you want to know what the world will look like in a hundred years, I believe you'd have to go ask the 300 million Chinese teenagers/children what they want it to look like.

I would argue that the United States does continue to make scientific and technological progress. Every day scientists in the US are researching groundbreaking things, and NASA is still trucking along pushing the boundaries of space and technology. Japan may be farther along and China may be more industrialized, but the US isn't exactly sleeping on progress either.

The problem is that this progress that we do make is underfunded and ignored by media and the general public. I assure you that if NASA had even half the budget the US military has, we'd probably be on our way to Mars right now rather than 2035 like they predict.

That's kinda it. Scientific progress was in the focus half a century ago, now it's become a background subject in the media. Just another "special interests group".

These days the majority of American kids grow up without much in the way of dreams and hopes. You ask these people what they want to do when they grow up, and from what I've heard the answer is almost invariably "a millionaire", "a popstar" or "an actor/actress". It's so damn sad.

And I agree, you double NASA's budget and america will lead the world in the frontiers of scientific discovery, no doubt about it. The problem is that your country and western countries in general are lead by lawmen instead of engineers, businessmen and scientists. They are, at best, simply experts you consult when you have a problem that needs solving.

Quote: Doomslicer

Guess what, folks? The title might contain sarcasm.

But seriously, exploding kittens are now trending. This bodes not well.

But I have fun when I'm being overly serious.

Quote: Wreckingball13

There was a guy who got $55,000 to make a potato salad.

At least he donated the money to charity