i'm still not sure which i'm more afraid of
various governments fighting over space
or various major companies fighting over space...

i tend to assume
what's going to happen with the xprize
is that whomeever wins
is going to "be invited to"
sell their patents to the government,
and thus will end
the golden era of private space missions.

we'll see.

Pretty soon we will have billboards and a McDonald's on the moon!

well,
Pizza Hut will go down in history
as the first company to advertise in space,
as that's already happened,
but yeah,
i've no illusions
that corporate life
will not follow us into space,
i just also have no illusions
about the government
taking the same approach to space
that they took with the internet.

"In the future all restaurants are taco bell." - demolition man.

I know I idealize space and getting "out there". All choices, whether it's continued government exploration or private exploration aren't going to be perfect. But I believe that there's a role for both in outer space. And having a combination of both is probably the only way we're going to get back on the moon. Money talks. Why should we go? my friend daniel probably stated it better than I ever could, so I'm going to link to him:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/danjite/214205.html

i don't see much point
in landing on the moon again
but i 100% believe the future of mankind
lies somewhere beyond planet earth.
tying ourselves down
to another gravity-laden rock
with almost zero resources
doesn't seem like it will do us much good, though,
we need things like Alpha
to really take off
and find ways to become self-sufficient.
if a space station can be self-sufficient
really truly self-sufficient,
most of the reasons for violence on earth
start to go away.

as do reasons for governments and corporations.
:)

read the schizmatrix series by bruce sterling
for a pretty meaningful representation
of my hopes, aspirations and fears for "post-humans".