>On Mars, and in Texas, Engineering is Peer-Reviewed by Reality Issues – (fk)
Our question is simpler: why are we willing to invest in putting a rover on Mars but not in the mundane responsibility of keeping the nation’s infrastructure in good shape? We are yet to resolve this conundrum.
It’s more than just a “conundrum” it’s the fundamental characteristic in mankind’s bloody history and lies at the heart of psychology and religion. E.O. Wilson comes to mind. He approaches the question in “Consilence” using his expertise in entomology with some interesting analysis of intra/inter group dynamics. But from the iron law of oligarchy to descriptions of the functioning of the limbic system and language, there is no answer (read the exchange between Einstein and Freud).