TAE's Official List of Things Smart People Should Not Be Wasting Their Time On

Old topics, dusted off again. Scientists once again discuss what to do if we encounter extra-terrestrial intelligence. Everyone discusses "what does Stephen Hawking think?" Everyone agrees that this is a complicated topic. No one mentions that there are a lot of problems here on Earth we should probably be concentrating on first.
TAE loves the thought that there are aliens "out there" amongst the stars, possibly zooming about, possibly beneficent, possibly awe-inspiring. It would be the single most amazing moment in the history of our Solar System if we discovered life, even microbial life, outside of the Sun's influence.

However, I'm beginning to think these conferences to discuss (implausible) events are irresponsible. Some of the people at these conferences are very smart! Why are they spending their mental resources discussing an almost ridiculous hypothetical event...again and again...when instead they could be concentrating on solving REAL issues that face our species now?

And so, without further ado, I present TAE's Official List of Things Smart People Should Not Be Wasting Their Time On:
1. Analysis of what to do in the event of contact with extraterrestrial beings: FTL travel is almost certainly impossible, or at least is almost certainly impossible within our lifetimes. So the absurdity of listening for radio signals from extraterrestrial beings (that would have been sent, literally, hundreds and hundreds of years ago) is pretty obvious. Meanwhile, kids in Africa can't get clean water.

2. Missions to land a manned spacecraft on a passing asteroid: Not only is this not analogous to landing on another planet due to the disparity in local gravity, but what happens when we land and then can't take back off? The astronauts pilot their new spacecraft - the asteroid - on a thousand year tour around the solar system. Plus, the asteroid would obviously be uninhabitable. Meanwhile, obesity kills 300,000 Americans a year.

3. Patent trolling: "Okay I've got a new business idea. Let's buy patents and use them as leverage to sue people with similar patents. We won't actually take them to court, though. Instead, we'll sue them for slightly less than what the lawsuit would cost if they went through the court process, so it makes more sense for them to just settle with us. Essentially we'll be getting free money. It's genius!"
It's also evil. How many brilliant lawyers out there are wasting both their lives as well as the productivity of other humans by trolling patents for money? How many innocent people are wrongly convicted because they don't have a good attorney? How many guilty criminals get off because the prosecution was incompetent? While IP lawyers take little immoral scoops out of the economy, justice dies a little. Meanwhile, the people of Iran are dominated by a merciless dictatorship.

4. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: in the entire theater of the first Gulf War, a total of 20 manned aircraft were shot down by enemy fire. The majority of those were by SA-9 and SA-13 surface to air missiles. We now fight an enemy with way less SAM availability. I am not saying that we need to go back to piloted aircraft. Rather, I am saying that we are spending a lot of time and energy developing "new, better" UAVs when the ones we have seem to be doing quite well at terrorizing Pakistani farmers already! Some of the top aerospace engineers in this country and others are diligently developing smarter, more deadly UAVs. And yet, people are starting to admit that the drones hovering overhead is a great recruiting tool for al qaeda. Meanwhile, 60% of Pakistan's population gets by on less than $2.00 a day.

5. 4G wireless phone technology: While it would make sense that I would be a big fan of ever-more-advanced cellular technologies, both because I slobber at Android devices and because I enjoy increasingly Star Trek-like hand held gadgets, but really, I can watch the Youtubes just fine on my Droid already. Do I really need even faster internet? Here in Kansas City, Sprint is rolling out 4G coverage along with a growing number of 4G phones. Verizon and AT&T are busy little bees, working on rolling out their own 4G networks either later this year or early next. TAE asks: before we start on the 5G network (all but inevitable, yes?), could we perhaps figure out a way to make the current cellular network not drop calls? Working on a "new, better" network while not fixing the existing problem is like if someone showed up at the dealership with their 1 year old car and said "this car isn't even a year old and I already need a new transmission..." and the dealer says "well we've got new cars with new transmissions! Forget about that old one!" and the person replies "but I like this car, I just want you to fix the transmission problem" and the dealer says "what transmission problem?" Meanwhile, 1.6 billion people don't even have electricity, much less a phone.

I could go on and on. I'd take aim at 3D televisions next. The point is, really smart people are wasting, absolutely wasting their lives on things that do not improve the human condition in the least. And that is a shame.


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