Society seems to have changed some in the last fifty years. Granted, there may well be some nostalgia coupled with selective history here, but it sure seems to me that in the 1950’s and first half or so of the 1960’s, when someone suggested an engineering project that pushed the limits of the possible the general consensus was “Say, that’s neato.” Now it’s “you’re gonna fail.”

As a general rule, American culture seems to have gone from the point of view “if it’s not illegal, it’s legal” to “Unless it’s explicitly legal, it’s illegal.” This has been codified in European Union law by way of the Precautionary Principle, which states things such as:

“When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.”

Not only has this insidious bit of anti-humanist philosophy crossed the Atlantic and invaded American government, it has also taken root in the culture as a whole. One of the most recent widespread examples can be found in the response to SpaceX’s proposal for Mars colonization.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to nitpick. As an engineer, my first impulse on examining something like the Mars colonization plan is to look for the flaws, the bad engineering, the erroneous assumptions, the things that can go wrong. But this impulse  does not end at pointing out the problems, but suggesting solutions. And the purpose isn’t to shoot down the idea that is not mine, but to fix the problems with it so that it can work.

But this is the age of not only the Precautionary Principle but also Online Bullying. We all know there are dirtbags out there who see someone in distress and pile on online in hopes of increasing the distress, often to the point of getting the victim to commit suicide. There’s a great big helping of “asshole” in all of us that is brought to the surface with the worldwide internet soapbox. So, it should not be terribly surprising that when Musk put forth his Mars plans, people started trying to tear it apart.

Some of the online tearing-apart  has been aimed at fixing what the commenters sees as flaws so that the overall idea *can* work:

Here’s How To Fix The Big Problems With Elon Musk’s Mars Spaceship

One can argue that a supposed “big problem” isn’t that big, or that the guy writing the piece might have the wrong solution. But the goal of the piece is positive.

But then there are other critiques that seem to serve no other purpose than to destroy the whole notion of Mars colonization:

The top 7 ways a trip to Mars could kill you, illustrated

This one does not propose solutions, it’s just a list of potential horrors.

Granted, not every piece needs to be a rah-rah celebration of whatever idea it’s discussing. Some plans really are bad ideas (I’m looking at you, Cash for Clunkers and Solyndra). But it just seems that there is a whole lot less celebration of the possible these days.