It Seems Wacky, But…
…Why isn’t America doing stuff like this? From Washington Post:
MERIGNAC, France – Braving queasy stomachs, a five-man team of French physicians took to the skies for the first surgical procedure on a human in zero-gravity conditions, as the aircraft soared and dived to create weightlessness.
The operation, more than three years in the making and part of a three-phase exploration of weightless surgery, is a step toward one day having surgery performed in space, either by a surgeon or a remotely controlled robot. It also is an experiment that may be instructive for a future medical emergency on the international space station.
The flight lasted three hours, but the operation to remove a cyst from a patient’s arm took just about the same amount of time it would have taken in a hospital, physicians said.
While America is concerned with small thinking concepts like Global Hegemony, Europe is quietly eyeing the solar system. One must ask: What is the future of mankind? Where can we go after all the wars resolve themselves into a single global powerhouse? What then?
Humans are curious beasts, ever pondering the unknown. We are explorers, conquerors who have run out of places to annex in the name of "God and Country." When the dust of looming global warfare settles, the remnants will find themselves with a damaged, nearly depleted planet. Small prize for all the bloodshed and sorrow. Meanwhile forward-thinking institutions are planning long term toward what may be the inevitable expansion of the human race. It is, at least, a hope in dark times, one that should be explored until evidence piles up on the futility of hope itself.
What have we, as a nation, to lose that we don’t already risk in global conflict? More importantly: What do we have to gain? To pursue space science, to give the average grunt a vision and hope for future generations (something that is slipping from us,) is to breath life into what is rapidly becoming an untenable condition - the combined effect of climate change, global ideological strife, depleted resources and the consolidation of wealth.
It may seem wacky, now, but our future is up.