Education, General Science, Media Criticism, Space, Space Science

The Misnamed Blog Carnival

6 Comments

The latest Carnival of Space is up.

For anyone interested, I’ve never participated in this, primarily because in my experience, they’re not really carnivals of space — they’re carnivals of space science, a subject in which I have little more interest in than other kinds, except to the degree that it provides knowledge of how to develop and settle it. This is a specific instance of a more general irk — when many people learn that I’m an expert on space policy and technology, or I do a radio interview, they assume that I’m both an expert on and interested in space science and astronomy and (even more annoyingly) UFOs. It’s the same kind of general public level of (lack of) knowledge that leads to phrases such as “rocket scientist.”

6 thoughts on “The Misnamed Blog Carnival”

  1. Space is a pretty large category (and a pretty large place) which would include all subcategories (and I apologize for stating the obvious.)

    Space economics might make a great carnival but it doesn’t get that many good posts.

    Space rockets ironically don’t happen at a great change of pace.

    Spaced out politics would be a wild affair.

  2. Wouldn’t Tyche be a cool find? Pournelle discussed the space population issue in a ‘step farther out’ in the seventies. Finally, in what category would space barley beer be found? Not a beer drinker myself.

  3. Rand, if Bill agrees to another Free Frontier video (I hope he does), maybe he could present a vision for what space settlement could be without continual government interference. When I hear people respond to the question of Moon, Mars or elsewhere with “all of the above” I like to think that they don’t mean one government program after another but a competition of philosophies with the winner being all of us.

  4. This is a specific instance of a more general irk

    Well, it could be worse. When I tell people I have an interest in astronomy, half seem to believe that it means I have an interest in astrology — including for some time my parents. Sigh…

  5. I think interest in astronomy and the development of space must be linked to some extent. Settling space is interesting in the same way as learning about a foreign country, Mt. Everest, or Antarctica is. When you know something about these places, they become interesting destinations to explore in-person.

    Nonetheless there seems to be a dichotomy on the human development of space. Some see space as beautiful in a way where we should “keep our hands off.” Others (like me) see the human development of space as the beautiful thing. I feel like it must have something to do with one’s impression of human progress.

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