Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Bet

I bet a friend $100 that by 2032 a human being will have walked on the surface of Mars.

He felt that, having reached peak oil, the required fuel and building capability for sustained, manned space flight were behind us. I, conversely, believe that travel to Mars with today’s technology is every bit as impossible as flying across the Pacific was in 1910. And yet…

We won’t know who’s right for decades. But I’ve never been gladder to make a bet.

22 more years with a continued sense of hope and wonder for mankind’s future?

Best $100 I’ll ever spend.

1 comment:

  1. Here here! I love a little healthy optimism and hope. What's the point in continuing to live as a human if you don't believe humanity has any tricks left up its sleeve? Besides, you're making the safe bet. Maybe 2032 is a decade late or a century early, but technological progress is almost impossible to stop and nay-sayers almost always end up eating their hats in the long run when it comes to bets like this.

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