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Comment by riantogo | Hacker News Reader

Somewhere along the way I have come to appreciate that as a society we need to optimize better for psychological, financial and physical wellbeing of people prioritized by proximity: employees, community, humanity. It will definitely slow down innovation. We might go to Mars 20yrs late, no self driving cars for 10 more yrs, walk around the city some more before electric scooter land etc.

Of course it is in conflict with innovations in humanity impacting products like cure for cancer, malaria etc. It would be nice to figure out a solution that provides a good balance.

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Have you considered moving to Europe?

This. Even if you don't cross an ocean you can still vote with your feet. You get the benefit of living somewhere with agreeable politics and the group you left gets the benefit of being "rid" of you. Everyone is happier that way. Of course people just need to have their cake and eat it too which causes problems. Sure, moving is a pain in the butt for a laundry list of reason but you have to ask yourself is it less of a pain in the butt than living somewhere where most people hold mostly incompatible beliefs from your own and what your priorities are.

Right. But I'm thinking if there is a way to solve this systemically (including US).

>It will definitely slow down innovation

It will definitely slow down innovation. Some projects / aspirations will come off the table completely. Mars? Forget about it. All your mars money will be treating AIDS/Malaria/Cancer/Whatever. All NASA and space exploration money will go to feeding poor people and refugees and all manner of charitable causes, these causes will only ever multiply ad infinitum. I think there is really only money for one or the other. You can have a comfy easy welfare state life, or you can explore and reach for the stars.

You can't do discount Mars, or space exploration on the cheap, you basically can't have both. Your welfare state will make it so that you don't ever really have enough money to actually do any kind of space exploration. Sure you can send cheap drones locally within the solar system, but that's all space exploration will ever be from now on.

Maybe instead of NASA, the money could come from the war budget instead? [1]

[1] http://www.newsweek.com/how-many-trillions-war-has-cost-us-t...

That won't happen. I don't think 'regime change' is going to come off the foreign policy menu, nor is paying back all the debt that is owed. So the space money is going to be eaten by debt payments and more 'regime change' initiatives around the world. I forgot all about foreign policy, I thought there would be no money before, now i KNOW there will be no money for any of that.

Is there a way to have both? Innovation (that matters) plus localized wellbeing? Regulation could force the second to certain extent but I would prefer a market solution.

Elon musk is probably thinking in the reverse order as you ? humanity, community, employees

Generally I agree with you that the economic growth is all costs is not the way to go and we need to consider people and their happiness much more than we do now. However, for possible extinction scenarios like massive climate change or the inability to leave earth when that unseen asteroid rushes towards us, I think we need to work much much faster than we are working right now and unhappiness of some is an acceptable loss.

I understand though that others might have different value judgements.

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