Chopsticks

 

A little late and a little off-topic. Today SpaceX did something pretty incredible - catching the first stage of their rocket on a tower using their "chopsticks". Watch the video and hear the enthusiasm of their engineers. This is a pretty remarkable feat, both because it saves the weight of landing gear (grid fins are necessary to their control scheme and provide a suitable load path) and reusability - catch it, stack it, fuel it, launch it all from the same cradle. Revolutionary, indeed, leaving NASA, ULA and Blue Origin in the dust. 

Elon's comment “science fiction without the fiction part” pretty much nails it. As a child I read everything I could about space flight. I was smart enough to know my eyesight and inherited heart conditions prevented me from being a NASA astronaut, but I imagined what kind of work might allow me to live on one an O'Neill Cylinder (my small library did have a copy of The High Frontier). Growing older, married, kids, and spiritually, the desire to leave this planet has slowly left me. Unlike Elon, I don't think we need to become interplanetary to preserve our civilization. Unlike Jeff, who recognizes the uniqueness of planet earth, I don't think we need to make it a nature preserve and offload heavy industry. Jesus is the one who opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing. 

There is a tension between technology and theology. We see that technology arises in the line of Cain, not the line of Seth. The Israelites never seemed to master ironwork and had to rely on the Philistines to sharpen their plows, axes, mattocks and sickles. The fullness of time consisted of the Pax Romana and the Roman Roads. The Reformation occurred with the printing press. But what great reformation has occurred with all the promise of the Internet? Cellular devices could put the Bible in everyone's pocket, but has it increased piety? Is reading from a screen an improvement or detriment compared to paper? Working in a high-tech field I sometimes struggle with this myself - certainly the money I make supports my family and my church but the ends of my employer? I'm not so certain. 

At the end of the day, God made us to touch grass. So go, touch grass, observe the stars, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.