When you start treating "first person with ethnic background X in space" as "good news", that's how you arrive at lots of effort, time and money being spent on pursuing objectives that have zero value.
"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."
(Ignore the Saudi case, since this is almost certainly a cynical gesture to foreigners so we can be more accepting of MBS as being actually a really great guy after all considering what he's doing for women)
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/saudi-arabia/2023/05/25/S...
You might counter that she was selected by the wealthy Saudi authorities as a PR stunt.
That's probably also true to some extent, but how is that different than the than how space travel was used for PR/patriotic purposes in the US and Russia for in the past?
A lot of space travel throughout it's history is openly about selling aspiration.
Never said that. Just pointing out what you treat as a positive reward signal matters if you want to optimize for the goal that's actually intended here.
What is this singular goal that you are implying should be intended here? The absolutely pure pursuit of science? That's never been the goal of space travel, even from it's inception.
Reducing barriers so that anyone can pursue their dreams seems like a worthwhile and humanistic goal.
I do, however, question the use of the label "ethnic background" because everyone is of some ethnic group.
That's why he wrote "ethnic background X". The X is a relevant part of the quote.
Sure, and what you treat as a positive reward signal towards this goal is important. If you treat having 10% more of X in field Y, as a positive, then why not 20% or better yet 50%? It leads to artificial results.
You don’t think it’s noteworthy and “positive news” that a woman from a country that wouldn’t let women drive just a little while ago is sending a female astronaut to the ISS? I get being irritated by weird and hyperbolic culture war nonsense, but this is pretty freaking amazing IMO.
While KSA has a great many problems - especially in regards to human rights <cough MBS having people murdered, cough cough>, this is a positive sign that maybe those sorts of attitudes aren’t permissible in polite company on a global stage anymore.
This is good news.
Tell me exactly how this is encouraging efforts that have “zero value?” You don’t think Saudi Arabia entering (albeit hesitantly) the 21st century is an achievement unto itself? You don’t think it’s noteworthy or admirable just because it’s not “boots in moon dust” or whatever technical achievement you think is more important? Please. Take your 1930s mentality back to where it came from.
The future isn’t only for men of European ancestry.