starship-design: Re: Why go to the stars? - Lee

[TLG.van.der.Linden@tip.nl (Timothy van der Linden)]

Lee,

>They (the baptists) were just an example. But, I can imagine any number of 
>groups coming up with reasons to leave in mass. Once you have made provision 
>for a few dozen people it is only a small step to a few hundred, a little
larger
>step to a few thousand. The first step is the biggest. There may even be an 
>"economy of scale" that comes into play here. It may actually get easier to 
>put together a mission of a few thousand people than a few dozen.

I understood it was an example (I wonder whether other more rational groups
could collect that much money though).

I believe your main point was to say that going to the stars was needed to
get freedom. I tried to explain, why I thought that going to the stars to
get freedom seemed to be the most expensive option of several others.
(Eg. building a large spacestation or going to Mars may do the same)

After that I tried to give another reason for going to the stars, namely to
get a different worldview and to get into a hard environment (from where you
can't easely escape). My guess was that the latter two may spark development
and inventiveness.

Timothy