I may well have promised photographs. I may well have been somewhat hasty with that promise, but they'll come up soon enough.
On a side-note, china is going to send up a female astronaut.
The fact this article is garbage (quoting comments in a BBC article, really? A thinly veiled attempt to impress the world that he can understand chinese) is neither here nor there; the criteria for eligibility are actually quite interesting. Have at least one child, be married, no birthing scars. They're carefully picked to ensure the wholesome image of a family friendly, cuddly, china.
As a side note, everyone has scars. The reason they cite for not having them is they might explode in space. What? It's obvious that isn't a real reason, so it must be for the whole purity of image thing.
As someone pointed out, similar restrictions were in place for the original american astronauts fifty years ago.
That seems to prove just how far behind the chinese really are. Scientifically, they're probably only a few years behind in most areas, but socially they're generations away from gaining parity. I wonder if it's necessary to be within a similar societal structure for technological advancement to evolve on its own. The old communists proved that it's untenable with their model (despite being in the lead,' for a while) so I'm cautious to predict them overtaking anyone in the sciences. Evidently, they're taking over the world economically. They're already the most important country in the world (whether others accept it or not) but they've broken through via means that are designed to stifle innovation, creativity and invention. In this world, they're commodities that are pre-requisites for cutting edge advancement.
It seems to me (some might say luckily) that china will not take the mantle of science and technology superpower, at least while they cling onto faux communism.
would you say japan is a technology and science superpower? If so, they started in the same way as china by copying everything and manufacturing it more cheaply (in japan's case they also improved quality which up to now the chinese haven't necessarily done) - would you say japan's social structure was similarly restrictive in the early days of their modern development? If so, then china will probably have no choice but to open it's internal social structure
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that Japan makes all the high-end gear in terms of high end electronics; cameras, batteries, robots and the like. But you never hear of a Japanese company making breakthroughs and advancements in any field except robotics.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether that's because the language barrier means the advances are never reported upon, or whether huge multi nationals based in the states innovate, then license the tech to the manufacturers here.
Without a doubt Japan is the primary producer of high technology hardware, but I don't see them as a research and development, innovation based economy. That might be one of the reasons why they've been in the doldrums for twenty years (that and criminal inefficiency).