| Space Station 3D | 2002-11-23 23:59 3 comments |
 by Flemming FunchMy son and I watched the Imax Space Station 3D movie. Imax is this system with huge screens, and it is also in 3D now. So here with the International Space Station, it was very much like being there. It gives a feeling of virtual presence that can't be conveyed through regular film or video. And that whole space station thing presents an optimistic, collaborative, global view on things. Here are a group of astronauts and scientists from a number of different countries, looking down on an earth without borders, working on interesting projects for the benefit of humanity, and having fun doing it. Now, one thing that always strikes me about our supposedly most advanced earth technology is all those messy wires. That space station is just stuffed with cables and wires and tubes and stuff, lots of it hanging loose, and I'm sure that bad things happen if you cut any one of them. It is so vulnerable. Same thing in an airplane, if you look out the window by the wings when they're moving the flaps. Just a lot of wires and tubes out in the open. Our most advanced electronics, like in computers and satellites, seems to be done the same kind of way. Lots of flimsy wires and copper conduits soldered together with little dots of metal. A tiny crack in any one of them will bring down the whole thing. Seems awfully primitive. |