Zubrin and Park will debate!

On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 18:39:19 +1100, in a place far, far away, Stephen
Souter made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On Wed, 4 Feb 2004 05:03:51 +0000 (UTC), in a place far, far away,
(Greg Kuperberg) made the phosphor on
my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:

In article ,
Rand Simberg wrote:
Yes, an irrelevant debate of two strawmen, a false choice, as though
the only two possibilities are "no people in space--they're useless!"
versus Apollo to Mars...

Why not wait to hear what they have to say before dismissing it?

I've heard what they both have to say, many times.

That may well be so. But an open mind would give them the benefit of the
doubt anyway by listening first before dismissing them.

I have a limited resource--time. Why should I listen to something
that I've alread heard many times, when I know that the debate will be
waged in a narrow range, between the forty-yard lines?

A closed mind, on the other hand, can't be bothered. He can safely dismiss them in
advance because he's certain he's heard it all before and therefore he's
certain he knows what they will say before they open their mouths to say
it.

Not a closed mind. An experienced mind, with little time to spare for
known repetition.

Of course, if the world were filled with closed minds there would no
need for space exploration, would there?

Nice strawman.