Hackerspace Space Program

[Kan .]

whoah!

to those who remember reading about the hackerspace space program a
while back.. an update today ...

http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/2012-April/005852.html
[hackerspaces] DARPA Selects Hackerspace Space Program for contract negotiation
for anyone interested in this they have their own mailing list you can
follow linked via that url ^

for those who missed it the first time around

http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Hackerspaces_Global_Space_Program
http://events.ccc.de/camp/2011/wiki/Space_program_of_the_Hacker_Scene:_For_our_future

[Colin Fitzgerald]

Super cool !! Be interesting to see what happens. Physics is a cruel
teacher. ;)

[Codo]

Interesting,

 

Mitch Altman is (temporarily?) severing ties with the maker faire movement due to DARPA involvement and he is apparently setting up a panel to talk about DARPA and hacker spaces 

http://slashdot.org/story/12/04/03/1656224/mitch-altman-parts-ways-with-maker-fair-over-darpa-grant

I was going to expound a bit here but I'll leave it at interesting. 

   Travis 

[Kan .]

thread here from mitch and the reactions of global hackerspace'ers
http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/2012-April/005858.html

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[Thomas LaFreniere]

This: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2763843&cid=39562741

Fair enough, Mr. Altman is free to do as he pleases.

But then this: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2763843&cid=39563027

Seems hypocritical.

Either way, this is why politics don't belong in hackerspaces.

cents += 2;

- Thomas

[Colin Fitzgerald]

I love politics and usually keep my mouth shut....BUT (this is too interesting).

This guy is just being ignorant (which is his right).  Sure the military has committed 'evil' acts, but the military (and DARPA) is just a manifestation, puppet, of society and human nature.

It never fails to amaze me how so many smart people fail to understand that western society itself and *all* the freedoms we enjoy have been wrought by thousands of years of armed conflict with those that would otherwise repress the common person.  This is a simple law of humanity, like gravity or ying/yang.  We have and always will be fighting this battle, overseas, at home and within our selves.  Sometimes politically, sometimes with guns.

Really, if people don't like the military establishment then they should join with it and change it within.  By opting out you've removed yourself from the game: become irrelevant.  That my friends is the greatest evil of all.

And, BTW, DARPA funds all kinds of out of the box research that wouldn't have a hope for mainstream research funding: case in point, giving money to a bunch of DIY'ers to build space ships.  Most other government/corporate organizations wouldn't be caught dead doing that!

[Rasmus Rydstrøm-Poulsen]

But they also build robots that can kill you. That's not cool.

Also, there are no laws of humanity, that's bullshit. And ying/yang/physics & humanity are not on my list of things I consider "simple" or "clear cut"

I respect his wishes to not be any part of DARPA... I thank them for the Internet... But the load carrying quadruped "dog" scares me :)

- Rasmus Rydstrøm 

(403) 890 8324

This message was sent from my mobile data device, apologies for typos and brevity.

[Paul Brodeur]

Full Disclosure: I am employed by a company that has received DARPA
funding for unclassified defense research.

I think Mitch's stance is about being informed about who you're
collaborating with. If you're against military action of any kind (as
Mitch is), you don't want to get in bed with an organization that
produces military technology. It's the same as people that don't have
Facebook accounts because they don't support what Facebook does.

When Protospace was just getting started, we had a tenant that we
wouldn't accept sponsorship, but that donations were ok. The reason,
as I recall it, was that we didn't want someone else's agenda listed
beside ours, and we didn't want an organization to hold money over our
head when we did something they didn't agree with.

This choice was validated, for me anyways, when talking to a director
of ENTS several years ago. They said they had accepted funding from
the City of Edmonton, along with a Microsoft Surface and a blade
server. In return, the City wanted them to produce something, a
product. They were all ok with this. But when a member of ENTS wanted
to teach lockpicking, he was told that the City wouldn't appreciate
that activity being associated with a group they fund, and his request
was denied.

Personally, I think DARPA's investment in teaching kids about science
and engineering is a net-win for society. Even if there is
political/military motivation for doing so, I think the overall
benefit to society outweighs anything else.

[Ben Reed]

+1 for wisdom!