spacemark

we do know that today we have the technology to detect our own technology from another star.

Can you elaborate on this? Just about everything I've read that has been written by a technically informed author points to leaked earth radio signals as being virtually undetectable from background noise after only a few light years. It would take 110 million Watts to get a voyager-strength signal to proxima Centauri, only 4 light years away (most broadcast stations don't reach 5 million Watts). KIC 8462852 is 1500 light years away...

Or are you talking about some other method of detection such as atmospheric spectroscopy?

I'm not Dr. Robertson, but I enjoy the conversation. Hopefully my two cents are valuable. :)

I too am a fan of Camus (I have a Sisyphus tattoo sleeve even), but my go to daily practice comes mostly from Stoicism. There is no all-encompassing philosophy for an individual except the philosophy s/he creates for him/herself. Existentialism is valuable in many ways, as is Stoicism. I found this interview to be insightful regarding the contrast between the two:

https://dailystoic.com/existentialism-stoicism-corey-mohler/

For our readers who are not as familiar as you with existentialism, can you give us a brief overview? And maybe explain in your own words the difference between existentialism and Stoicism?

Existentialism, in particular the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, was primarily concerned with what it means to be free. They would say that the central thing about our existence was our perfect freedom to define what our existence meant. This, of course, doesn’t mean that we are perfectly free to do anything. Going back to Epictetus’s leg, Sartre would say the fact that his leg was lame was part of his “facticity”. This just means that it is an inert fact of existence. So he couldn’t be free to walk normally, because it was simply part of reality that his leg didn’t function. He was, however, free to interpret the meaning of what happened to him, and the meaning of his lame leg. So whether or not he lets his lameness define who he is, or cause him suffering, is complete up to him. So far it sounds pretty similar to Stoicism, right? This is where they depart though. The Stoics finish that thought with: “and therefore, he should obviously not let it cause him suffering.” The Existentialist simply says that it is up to him. So if he genuinely wishes to be spiteful to his old master, and hold a grudge, that too is up to him, and only he is responsible for that action. So like the Stoics, the Existentialists draw a sharp line between what you must accept as merely existing in the world, and what you are able to influence with your own will. Unlike the Stoics, they do not believe it is possible to draw from this any “logical” or “ideal” way to live. Human freedom only has an obligation to authentically express itself, however it chooses.

The entire asteroid belt is less than 4% the mass of the moon.

How many hours a week on average did it take you to write the book?

My girlfriend and I love writing, and talk about writing books, but with demanding careers we find it hard to make the time. We are coming to the conclusion that we need to take a year off and go live in a village in Mexico to put our books to paper.

Let me see if I understand you correctly. You think harvesting water from asteroids beyond Mars is going to be more economically viable than water collected here on earth within the next few centuries?

😐