Perfect software
February 27th, 2005
The right stuff kicks in at T-minus 31 seconds.
Nowadays, what with the X Prize having been won and Richard Branson lining up bookings for Virgin Space, it’s fashionable to damn everyone at NASA as a bunch of time-serving bureaucrats. To pick one, especially classy, example, see a response Wired received from one Jim Davidson of Houston, Tx to an article about the future of manned space travel:
“Unfortunately, NASA’s core strength is killing astronauts in batches of seven and keeping the door to space closed. [...] NASA hasn’t been to the moon in 30 years, has no capacity to create economic opportunity, and is simply a bunch of looters using public money to support middle-class clock-watchers.”
If we’re all riding round in computer-controlled cars twenty years from now, would you want the software controlling the size of the gap between you and the car in front and the speed at which you’re travelling written by NASA’s software team or Microsoft’s or Linus Torvalds and friends? I know which I’d feel more comfortable with…
[Via Yoz Grahame]