Socially|Mundane

Space exploration is so 1960's, isn't it?

I think the world, well, at least the people of the United States are more or less bored with it. They barely raise a brow when anything exciting comes out of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - unless it's bad news, such as the catastrophic Space Shuttle tragedies.

Yes, there are a lot of people who do take notice with regard to NASA's shenanigans and there are a lot of people fascinated enough with 'outer' space that they make it a hobby, with bazillion-dollar telescopes and massive research on the web and other places on the Internet.

Unfortunately, the public at large seems to show little interest. Blackberry and operating system debates seem to be far more important in the public mind.

NASA is and always has tried to engage the public and one of the ways they have done so is to enter virtual worlds to bring outer-space down to earth for the public to have direct access to. Well, virtually anyway.

Government 2.0: NASA CoLab-oration - Mashable: "Leaving the real world for a minute, there is an elaborate NASA presence on ‘CoLab Island’ in Second Life, providing information about all sorts of activities with an additional emphasis on having ‘launch parties’ and the like (a great description can be found here). However, despite this high-quality (and perhaps necessary) presence, because Second Life has very few habitual users, I wonder about the effect it has had."

I've written a lot about NASA in Second Life (just type NASA into the search field above and kick-it to see what's been written before on this blog.) I like NASA and what they're doing. What does space really matter to us? Nothing really, I suppose.

It's all about the human quest for knowledge. To know our world (i.e. 'universe'.) and how it works. Even the bible describes 'man' becoming "as a 'god'" and I am sure this it what the authors meant:

Knowledge is power.
But we've been hearing that since our diaper days, right?

Be curious.
Question everything.

[Yes, I heard that as a production tag for the Discovery Channel. I love the Discovery Channel. I love that statement.]

The beauty of Second Life and its building tool, and the way Linden Lab allows the users to create their own content - makes it easy for people to educate other people. There is an amazing wealth of educational information inside Second Life.

So skip the dance party for a change, take-off your primdick an leave the free sex room and actually explore Second Life. You'll be fascinated and awestruck by some of what you find - beauty, amazing architecture, fascinating concepts, things that are simply impossible in the real world, even how things - a windmill for example - actually work.

Take the time to actually look past the bimbo-escort cooing for your Linden Bucks and actually reconnoiter Second Life. Just go do some random sim-hopping. Open the map, scroll around and teleport to whatever looks interesting. In the places search, how about putting in something wierd like 'NASA", "Pyramid", "Crator", "Space", "Mechanical" and so on.

Sure, you'll be blasted with a lot of garbage. But if you do a quick scroll-through, something will catch your eye. And it only takes a few seconds to pop-over and investigate.

It just might be like opening your eyes for the very first time all over again.

And the wonder will wow you.

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