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Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Friday, June 4th, 2010 3:33am PDT - promote requested by original submitter BicycleRepairMan.

I was hoping for more analysis of the quantifiable return on investment in the sciences... like the Apollo program yielding $14 for every $1 (over an unspecified period of time).

Talking about a sense of wonder and possibility is great for the culture, but to really get the machine of capital and policy rolling, you have to speak the language of profit and self-interest.

The problem is you can't do that. You can't quantify that at all.

It's like Big Pharam, you spend billions of dollars in R&D to find the next possible pill to alleviate heart problems and suddenly you create Viagra.

>> ^chilaxe:

I was hoping for more analysis of the quantifiable return on investment in the sciences... like the Apollo program yielding $14 for every $1 (over an unspecified period of time).
Talking about a sense of wonder and possibility is great for the culture, but to really get the machine of capital and policy rolling, you have to speak the language of profit and self-interest.

Given what scientists have done with that budget, imagine where we'd be if we invested more into it.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by jimnms.

>> ^Farhad2000:

The problem is you can't do that. You can't quantify that at all.
It's like Big Pharam, you spend billions of dollars in R&D to find the next possible pill to alleviate heart problems and suddenly you create Viagra.
>> ^chilaxe:
I was hoping for more analysis of the quantifiable return on investment in the sciences... like the Apollo program yielding $14 for every $1 (over an unspecified period of time).
Talking about a sense of wonder and possibility is great for the culture, but to really get the machine of capital and policy rolling, you have to speak the language of profit and self-interest.



Exactly. his entire point is that we need explorers precisely because we dont know what they'll find out, thats what exploration is. It is a widely believed myth that the people who were against Columbus' attempt to sail around the world to reach India(which was the original plan for the exploration) all thought the earth was flat, they didnt actually think so, their main argument was that the distance would be too great, and as such they were completely right, not only did they figure that Columbus wouldnt make it, so the investment in the ship would be wasted, but even if he DID make it all the way to India, the distance would still make commercial traffic unfeasible. And they were actually right on all points. The entire beauty and nature of exploration, however, is that you can bump into America on the way over there, and there is no way to tell you this in advance. To tell you in advance what the return on the investment in exploring is, we need to explore.. well, you get the point.

Oh I agree. I think the decline in space exploration has cost us more as a species then anything else as Stephen Hawking said colonization and exploration space is a necessity for the long term survival of the species.

But I agree with Chilaxe, for profits need to be given a carrot to do any worthwhile investment. Though am glad how self funded space programs are faring.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'brian cox, science, explorers, stars' to 'brian cox, science, explorers, stars, TED, ted talks' - edited by gwiz665

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