I suppose I'd have to partially agree, but I'd honestly much rather see more exploration of our own planet take precedence over the exploration of space. There's honestly only so much funding to be had, and I'd rather see more focused on discovering the secrets of our own planet.
Ideally I'd like to see all available funding diverted to research of both, however.
The thing that generally gets me down about life is when I learn and read about the great thinkers from centuries past. Science only seems to have been hindered, and sometimes I believe we're 200-300 years behind where we could be. I blame the Catholic Church for a lot of this... the sheer disregard for any way of thinking that opposed a divine being that lead to the deaths of hundreds of scientists and mathematicians is appalling.
The more I've learned about mathematics the more depressing this way of thinking becomes. Only recently have we found practical uses for things discovered hundreds of years ago. Matrices, something rarely used before 1900s, are a staple in computer programming. The binary number system is again something that was discovered in the 17th century and only began to have practical uses recently, as it is, literally, the language of computers. Electrical currents only have two states, on and off, a binary number system fits this perfectly. (I use the term discovered, because it's more so a discovery of the correlation between numbers and not an invention) Electricity rules our lives today, but how much further along could generator technologies, or appliances or technological devices be if people had begun to think of practical uses for electricity upon it's discovery?
As far as wasting one's time is concerned... I try to stay away from this entire line of thinking. Existential crises are just not fun.
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