Category Archives: Economics
Future Scarcity
An interesting discussion on the implications of AI and robots. Read the whole thread.
Maybe unpopular opinion? I think an age of abundance via AI might cause more war instead of less, because the value of land on earth will trend toward infinity (there is finite land on earth), while the cost of creating robot armies to fight over it will trend toward zero.
— Phil Metzger (@DrPhiltill) April 18, 2026
The Latest From Jared
I understand some in the community have an affinity for specific hardware, but the focus should be on outcomes. With respect to SLS, the desired outcome is launching crewed Orion spacecraft at a reasonable cadence, rebuilding muscle memory, and buying down risk so we can land…
— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) April 17, 2026
[Mid-morning update]
An interesting interview with him.
[Noon update]
ICYMI, from Jared’s X post: “I do not want to throw away billions of taxpayer dollars, and time we do not have, on a flavor of a rocket that is not necessary to return astronauts to the moon.”
Jeff Greason
I haven’t listened yet (it’s a two-hour interview), but I’m sure it’s interesting:
This has gone live now. Wide ranging; how I got in the field, what worthy goals are for the space enterprise, some of what we need, and of course, advanced propulsion. Gets a little emotional in spots. And 2 hours long ….https://t.co/CyO6dZPone
— Jeff Greason (@JeffGreason) April 16, 2026
Thanks to @tmro https://t.co/iIdePreSGP
The “Ceasefire”
…is merely a strategic pause. And the blockade of Iran is part of it.
[Tuesday-morning update]
I’m going to make many of you spitting mad at me for pointing this out, but now that we have started the naval blockade, Iran’s strategic position (which was already hopeless) has become terminal. They are soon going to run out of storage space for their oil. And we haven’t even…
— Ken Gardner (@KenGardner11) April 13, 2026
New-Car “Features”
Yes, they’re expensive to repair, but these are also one of the reasons that new cars have gotten so ridiculously expensive. I don’t need a heads-up display, or a large LCD screen. Give me knobs.
Convenient BS
The legacy of Al Gore’s religious polemic, twenty years on.
He, I think more than anyone, was responsible for the politicization of science.
A Turning Point?
A history, and thoughts on NASA’s needed transition, from Edgar Zapata.
Newsom Is Gruesome
The Current Generation And Space
I've written about this extensively over the years (this, depressingly, is from almost a decade ago: https://t.co/4mnbzkPsvN), but the reason we didn't continue on from Apollo was that we did it the wrong way, the most expensive possible way, because of the "end of the decade"… https://t.co/BjXuPmKvgk
— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) April 2, 2026