Elon Musk took a well-deserved victory lap on SpaceX's latest amazing feat, when the company's “Mechazilla” rocket catcher made a perfect landing on the all-important Starship booster, and the U.S. It took an overwhelming lead in the space race. This is a thrilling return to form for America's once distinctive advantage in large-scale hardware and infrastructure.
But China, which has confounded American cities for decades with its rapid and spectacular urban growth, may have far different tricks up its sleeve when it comes to fighting Musk's U.S. dominance beyond Earth's orbit. do not have.
As our top achievements become more glorious, we must remember that pride precedes failure, and the greater the pride, the more difficult failure will be. These ancient Christians knew that the only way to become like God was through rigorous spiritual exercise.
After years of buzz around the capabilities of so-called quantum computing, Chinese researchers have announced a powerful new approach with computational power beyond that of regular supercomputers. announced They used this technology to hack “military-grade” encryption. There is no need to panic, but the difficulty of effectively weaponizing quantum cryptography is significant. Still, this is a serious wake-up call. If we can't protect machines on the ground with the strongest encryption, we can't go to space.
SpaceX's incredible progress is due to courage, hard work, and ingenuity, but also because the U.S. government has a tremendous national interest in establishing aerospace leadership for generations. be. It is difficult to see how today's major digital powers can achieve the demilitarization of outer space, including orbit. This means the United States is seeking a significant advantage to offset what appears to be a widening capability gap compared to China's lead in drone and robotics technology. Super large scale.
So there were plenty of high-fives and eye-rolling surprises, mixed with a sense of relief that Musk's latest victory means Americans can still perform even complex feats of engineering that have major national security implications. It is understandable that it causes this.
But predictable excesses have also erupted. “Our ancestors would have seen us as gods!” turned into a rhapsody Peter Diamandis, founder of XPrize. “What a wonderful time to be alive…Next up is humanity's godlike achievement…health and long life.”I wonder which of Diamandis's ancestors would consider him a god? Hard to imagine – the Greeks were undoubtedly among the first Christians on earth, and perhaps the ancient Greeks who managed to maintain good health and strong musculature into old age without doing anything. Not even a religious person. Benefit from computerized machines and modern scientists.
As our top achievements become more glorious, we must remember that pride precedes failure, and the greater the pride, the more difficult failure will be. These ancient Christians knew that the only way to become like God was to make a difficult spiritual movement along the narrow path toward union with the Lord. They would shed tears of loving pain for those of us today who believe that there is nothing more difficult to achieve godhood than solving extremely difficult math problems.
Humility in the midst of greatness is always a good thing, but to take just one example, it comes in very handy when you have to consider quantum hacking of what is supposed to be an “unsinkable” military layer code. Masu. Historically, great powers have faced even greater shocks, and one humiliating defeat can be enough to collapse a nation that previously seemed indestructible. It is long past time to make America great and humble again.
