Jon Alexandr

This is a poster I designed in 1980 for an outdoor event I co-organized in San Francisco to commemorate the 11th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the first landing of a person on the Moon.

@michaelshermer Good points, but humanity's large and still growing population — despite an overall decline in fertility rates — has a decidedly negative effect on native habitats and biodiversity, which underpin our planet's interdependent ecologies. Malthus might still have the last word.

My Scientific American essay on the ultimate problem with Thomas Malthus & Paul Ehrlich geometric growth thinking—people are not like locusts: we solve problems. + Stein's Law: things that can't go on forever, won't. + It's always other people who should restrict growth.

@michaelshermer @SteveStuWill stevestewartwilliams.com/p/a-billion-ye…

@michaelshermer @SteveStuWill I have a paid subscription to Stewart-Williams' Substack account, where he has been publishing chapters (or preliminary chapters) from the book. I will be putting the book next to Steven Pinker's book, "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature."

Astonishing that it takes an entire book to explain what everyone has known for many millennia, but that's where we are in history today. So @SteveStuWill forthcoming book is a must read:

“Mr Nobody Against Putin”- a must-see film. No people ever think that their country will fall down the slippery slope of tyranny- until it’s too late. You just can’t flirt with authoritarians.

@NASAhistory Clarke's quote applies here. (I was pleased that the administrators of my new neighborhood library chose to highlight my submission of that quote on one of the library's study room windows.)

A 2.5-second rocket flight that heralded decades of discovery in space! Today marks 100 years since the first successful test of a liquid-fueled rocket. Robert H. Goddard's achievement would have appeared unimpressive by most measures: His rocket flew just 41 feet in the air, landing in a nearby cabbage patch. Liquid-propelled rocketry has been the backbone of spaceflight ever since. 📷 by Esther Goddard on March 16, 1926 (Clark University Archive)

@AJamesMcCarthy Clarke's quote applies here. (I was pleased that the administrators of my new neighborhood library chose to highlight my submission of that quote on one of the library's study room windows.)

Liquid-fueled rockets had their 100th birthday today. Crazy that the technology has been used to give us so many modern comforts, while also unlocking the stars. Imagine where we will be in 100 years from now.

@FutureJurvetson Clarke's quote applies here. (I was pleased that the administrators of my new neighborhood library chose to highlight my submission of that quote on one of the library's study room windows.)

🚀 Today is the 100-year anniversary of the first liquid-fueled rocket launch. Like the Wright Brothers, Robert Goddard’s flight changed rocketry forever, pioneering today's mainstay, liquid-fueled SpaceX rockets. Here are my artifacts from his 1926 flight (last photo). But first, I am pointing to a museum replica of Nell — Goddard’s 10’ tall rocket powered by gasoline and liquid oxygen. It went just 41’ up in 2.5 seconds, hitting 60 MPH, but it marked the dawn of the space age. The New York Times publicly mocked his work in 1920, but Goddard persisted. Fearing further criticism, Goddard kept his 1926 launch secret for nearly a decade. Go Goddard, go, go go! “There can be no thought of finishing, for aiming at the stars, both literally and figuratively, is the work of generations, but no matter how much progress one makes there is always the thrill of just beginning.” — Robert Goddard From the Future Ventures’ space museum, last photo: 1) Inner nozzle from the first flight Starting on the far right, the alundum cement rocket nozzle liner from the liquid-fueled rocket launched by Robert H. Goddard, likely the world's first on March 16, 1926. The piece measures approximately 1.25 x 2.25 x .5 inches and has scorch marks on the interior from use. This artifact was given to Frederick C. Durant III by Goddard’s widow, Esther Goddard, and has been kept in an envelope labeled in Durant’s hand, “Ceramic rocket nozzle liner used by R. H. Goddard in 1920s, possibly from the 1926 (March 16) flight.”   Frederick C. Durant III, the former head of astronautics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, was one of the world’s foremost authorities of spaceflight and rocketry. This is one of several artifacts he received from Esther Goddard, one of the four people on the crew for the launch of March 16, 1926, and from her testimony, he determined the 1926 flight as the likely origin. The small size of the piece lends credence to this conclusion, as Goddard’s rocket experiments grew larger and larger over time. 2) Fuel valve remains from a failed experiment Bottom left. Fuel-feed-rate needle valve from one of Goddard’s early rockets, circa late 1920s/early 1930s. The piece measures approximately 7 x 5 x 2” and consists of a valve passing through a longer pipe segment attached to a fragment of a larger base; a short bracket extends from the base, which was damaged in a blast during rocket experiments. The needle valves were located near the top of Goddard’s rockets and were a critical element in controlling his fuel feed line and tank systems. This artifact was given to Frederick C. Durant III by Goddard’s widow, Esther Goddard. 3) Fuel Tank Baffle Upper left. Bi-level metal rocket fuel tank baffle from one of Goddard’s early rockets, circa mid-to-late 1920s. The piece measures approximately 3.5″ in diameter and 2.25″ tall and consists of two discs connected by four rods. This artifact was also given to Frederick C. Durant III by Goddard’s widow, Esther Goddard. The baffle was an important element of Goddard’s fuel tank design, used to combat the ‘slosh’ of liquid propellant during flight. A couple more Goddard quotes that remind me of @ElonMusk: “Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace.” "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."

@AJamesMcCarthy "Let there be rockets..." — Robert Goddard, March 16, 1926 (Not his quote, just something that popped into my head this morning.)

@FutureJurvetson "Let there be rockets..." — Robert Goddard, March 16, 1926 (Not his quote, just something that popped into my head this morning.)

@NASAhistory "Let there be rockets..." — Robert Goddard, March 16, 1926 (Not his quote, just something that popped into my head this morning.)

@mmealling @DrPhiltill Sanders is a bottom-up democratic socialist. He'd be comfortable in a "Star Trek" universe. His political philosophy is far from any top-down, state-controlled communism as manifested by dictators like Putin or Xi Jinping. Google's "A.I. Overview" is interesting in this context.

@Jon_Alexandr @DrPhiltill I'm sorry, that was harsh... I do think space is big enough for any ideology. But I'm leaving specifically to get away from that particular one.

Regarding Bernie Sander’s proposed moratorium on building data centers — I don’t think his argument works. He builds the argument around AI safety, both avoiding extreme societal disruption and preventing AI-caused extinction. But could you realistically get China and the US to agree on an AI safety pause with enough assurance that the other side isn’t cheating? Sure, both sides can monitor the construction of data centers from space, but 99% of progress in AI will likely come from better algorithms and better chips, not from more or bigger data centers, and you can’t monitor algorithm development and chip replacement from space. So I don’t think an effective AI pause is enforceable, so I don’t think geopolitical game theory allows it to happen. Putting a moratorium just on constructing new data centers, the only enforceable part of a treaty, would cause no more than a small and temporary slowdown in AI development and would therefore be mostly performative with respect to safety. I think the addressable problem with data centers is environmental, not safety, and the solution to that problem is putting them in space ASAP. For safety, I’m still of the opinion that the best path is not to asymmetrically hobble just one country but to keep AI development public where it can be monitored rather than driving it into secret labs without oversight. (I’m open to being convinced otherwise.)

@ashwin_vara @rdfrs @RALindsay @FreeInquiry Good point. But the supernatural aspects are what often attract potential adherents. Best to be specific about what is meant by “Buddhism” when you mean living the good life. Regardless, I think the statements of such a historical figure likely need updates for the 21st Century.

@Jon_Alexandr @rdfrs @RALindsay @FreeInquiry That's right but this came AFTER Buddha's death when the Buddhism split into 3 sects where supernatural realms were incorporated to improve wider appeal of the religion.

Some critics say atheism is incomplete because it doesn’t tell us how to live. @RALindsay argues that atheism’s honesty about human responsibility may be exactly what some find unsettling. Worth a read. From @FreeInquiry: secularhumanism.org/exclusive/anot…

@FFRF I support women. If the rights of women conflict with "transgender women," I support *women*. Women have fought too long & too hard to have their rights undermined by biological men who identify, feel, or look like women. There are many expressions of gender, but only two sexes.

Any canon of literature would be incomplete without the works of Virginia Woolf. Her essays and novels were early rallying cries for women's rights and helped carve a path forward for generations of women to follow. Quote: "Letters of Virginia Woolf," 1975. #WomensHistoryMonth

@NASA_Marshall @chandraxray "Sonification" is a cheap parlor trick that can be done with any digital input. It's pretty useless for making the universe actually more understandable to people.

Uranus is unlike any other planet in our solar system, and astronomers currently rely on telescopes, like @chandraxray, to learn about this distant and cold planet. Now, listeners can hear the ice giant through this new data sonification. More: go.nasa.gov/3P3OUfL

@siegnant @michaelshermer "Weird people cannot always distinguish between fiction and reality." And that was my point — although I might add misguided and uneducated people in the mix, too. Memes — and movies — have consequences, some more important than their supposed entertainment value.

@Jon_Alexandr @michaelshermer Nah, it's an interesting scenery full of narrative possibilities. Nothing wrong to make movies on that. Weird people cannot always distinguish between fiction and reality.

No, he does not know more than the rest of us and just said so himself! Again, this is not a documentary!

FFRF is proud to co-sponsor the third #NoKings protest, sweeping the nation on Saturday, March 28. This month's nonviolent protest is expected to be the largest in American history. To mark the occasion, a new shirt is now available on FFRF's webstore. ➡️ ffrf.us/4blSfy6

@SithisVX @michaelshermer Here's the real alien:

@Jon_Alexandr @michaelshermer

Remember, it's a movie—a fictional film—not a documentary.

@SithisVX @michaelshermer Like I said. Get a grip.

@Jon_Alexandr @michaelshermer Read my reply again. That's not what I said. So you think Luna, and Burchett and Gaetz are just lying about what officials showed them inside Eglin? Because they don't seem like liars to me.