Neil deGrasse Tyson: The 3 Fears That Drive Us to Accomplish Extraordinary Things
Nobody wants to die. And not only that, people especially don't want to die poor. But if you have to die, and God forbid, die penniless, it's good to have lavished sufficient praise on a deity...
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So about a decade ago I realized that if we were going to go to Mars with people it would be really expensive, and so I thought to myself: what activities have human cultures engaged in, in the past that were as expensive as what it might be to go to Mars and what motivated them to spend that money? I was going to fill a whole book, "Motivations to do Great Things, Great Expensive Things," and then I'd find the task, I'd find the activity that most closely resembled what it would be to go to Mars in the 21st century and I'd say, oh, is that what that culture did with their population, is that how they raised the money, is that how they convinced the people? I was going to fill a whole book of this. It would be a nice little reference ...
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So about a decade ago I realized that if we were going to go to Mars with people it would be really expensive, and so I thought to myself: what activities have human cultures engaged in, in the past that were as expensive as what it might be to go to Mars and what motivated them to spend that money? I was going to fill a whole book, "Motivations to do Great Things, Great Expensive Things," and then I'd find the task, I'd find the activity that most closely resembled what it would be to go to Mars in the 21st century and I'd say, oh, is that what that culture did with their population, is that how they raised the money, is that how they convinced the people? I was going to fill a whole book of this. It would be a nice little reference ...
