A very thoughtful blog post right here.
I will paste the premises:
There are at least two kinds of magic. These two kinds may not always be distinct in their appearance, but are very different in their underlying motives and their ultimate outcomes.
The first kind of magic, which we shall call “Human”, is driven by the desire to extend one’s power over the world, while simultaneously minimizing one’s dependence on the world. The ultimate outcome of this pursuit is world-amputation: the destruction of the world on which one no longer depends.
The second kind of magic, which we shall call “Elvish”, is driven by the desire to extend one’s understanding of the world, while simultaneously minimizing one’s intentional interference with the ways of the world. The ultimate outcome of this pursuit is self-amputation: the dissolution of the self and becoming one with the world.
I’m obviously an Elvish stan.
You can tell Jeff Bezos —and all the folks like him— sees the world as something to conquer rather that something to adapt with. And they conquer all right! But they’re quite alone in their conquest and the world kind of despise them: you don’t conquer without destroying.
Now imagine Amazon has been hard at work housing people for the past decade not with ridiculously low wages that look good in the Midwest, but with true collaborative power, involving all actors and housing people in sustainable buildings. Imagine that an entire generation of our society grows in near-perfect environment that respect Nature. Imagine what that generation would invent to live in space. They probably wouldn’t care about it like Jeff does in 2020 (they wouldn’t understand the point of trying to live in the most unfriendly environment known to human beings, rightfully so) but if they did, they’d probably provide a shit ton better technology to live outside earth that this ridiculous Blue Whatever thing Jeff Bezos is toying with these days.
He’s about to make those flights a tourist activity, up to thousands of astronauts a year? Imagine the amount of fuel and material waste used to amuse very wealthy folks for 3 minutes in zero G. Conquer, destroy, repeat.
Understanding instead of power goes a long way. Gains are not quarterly, true. They’re immense, though.