Hacker News Reader

Comment by spookyuser | Hacker News Reader

I watched Free Solo not long ago, yesterday I watched Falcon 9 launch then land flawlessly and today I watched Dragon 2 dock with the ISS.

It's mind boggling how apt humans are to what should be impossible.

View on HN

Oooh, I'm eagerly awaiting that film to screen in Berlin later this month! I loved Alex's TED talk. Just that little taste had my palms very, very sweaty.

Which film?

Apparently there's a documentary coming out about Alex Honnold's free solo ascend of El Capitan. It's called "Free Solo"[1]

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7775622/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It was already released and won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 2019 Academy Awards.

It's something that you should consider viewing if you have the chance. The cinematography alone is worth the price of admission // rental.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/movies/oscar-winners.html

National Geographic channel aired it today (March 3rd). But if you have the opportunity to see it on an IMAX size screen, I would wait until that.

Highly recommended! If you can, see it on IMAX for maximum palm sweating :P

Imagine the energy and money spent on bickering and wars and ultimately useless junk were not.

I'm not a fan of war, but many technologies and sciences were developed for military use, everything from mathematics for ballistics, food preservation, thermodynamics, antibiotics, nuclear energy, the lunar program, and GPS.

So yes, war is a horrendous waste and terrible detriment to humanity, but even war has had some beneficial side effects.

The same effort can be put into inventing these in the absence of conflict. You do need funding and you do need urgency, but that's a question of national will.

...and war seems to be the most effective source of national will.

Unfortunately, it (often) _isn't_. I'd love to live in that world, but it doesn't seem realistic.

Just wait until you hear about Wernher von Braun.

And how is that a refutation, logically?

War has enabled his "useless" creations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com