On July 20th, 1969, this day 57 years ago, the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon. At 4:17 EDT, Neil Armstrong reports, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Later, Armstrong exits the Eagle lander, and with his words, "That's one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind," that one man brings all of mankind onto another thing, out there, in space. Our own moon, distant, the object of people's dreams, worship, and imaginations for thousands of years, was walked upon by man. From that moment, we are no longer locked to a destiny where this world, our Earth, this 'middle enclosure' so called by Anglo-Saxons some thousand years ago, but instead, a new frontier more wonderous and deadly than anything else faced before was opened. This was an achievement for all of humanity, but it was accomplished only through the United States of America. Our nation is one who's historical population consists of pioneers, settlers, and conquerors. The heritage of the United States begins with Englishmen, descended from the Anglo-Saxons who sailed to a distant island and established their own homes and kingdoms, and those Englishmen forged from a savage wilderness a nation that would be founded on principles that enshrine God as the source of liberty, and governance derived from the people. From 13 Colonies turned into 13 States through the violence of war and the work of our Founding Fathers to establish a new government, our people went further into the New World, always seeking and opening new frontiers. By the 20th Century, this seems to have come to an end, but that assumption couldn't be further from the truth. The Space Race begins with the oncoming of the Cold War and it is won by the United States, despite Soviet accomplishments early on, when it was men wearing the American flag who became the first of mankind to step on the first landing ground, the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. Just over 20 years before, we had just finished a brutal war, deadlier than any in human history, ending it with the deployment of Atom Bombs that brought us into a different conflict, one of science and politics with wars and contingencies aiming to stop the spread of Communism. If things had been slightly different, we could have had nuclear war, and the world as we know it would be truly hellish. This did not happen. Instead, the crew of Apollo 8, soon after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, would be the first of mankind to witness Earth Rise from orbit around the moon, and they would read the eternal words of scripture, "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth... and God saw that it was good..." on Christmas day. That is our legacy, that is our spirit, and it would bring us to this day 57 years ago with the moon landings. That is, what I believe, makes the United States distinct from all other nations and civilizations. Others may say, 'our nation is hundreds of years old, we defeated so and so enemies, we invented this or that," but we can say, as Americans, "Our people set foot on the moon." We are the only people in human history who can say that it is our achievement, our frontier, no one can take it from you. Our adversaries today may be trying to undo our lead in the lunar frontier race, but I have complete confidence we will overcome their challenges to what has essentially become our future heritage. So as long as we keep faith in God, who governs all things in this vast universe, and so as long we, as Americans, believe that our nation and our people is worth struggling for, worth the hardship fighting and conquering new frontiers, I believe we will go onto achieve more than just a moon landing. Within the next ten years, I know that we will have not just a settlement, but the beginnings of cities, on the Moon. Beyond that, considering it took some almost 200 years to go from our nation being founded in the age of horse-drawn carriages and Benjamin Franklin experimenting with lighting to our nation putting people onto the moon, within the next decade or two, between now and then, we will have put Americans onto Mars. The legacy of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins will be honored and expanded by our generation and the generations to come. This is a bit of a rant that's too long, but, that is how I feel today, and how I will always feel about this.

Automate the factories. If a large portion of a people don't want to work within an industry, then that industry should either alter working conditions to attract people to work for them, or, automate the factories. Either way, allowing the work to just go undone, in an age where robotics and artifical intelligence is on the verge of being capable to fulfill those roles, would be foolish.

I don't think an AI becoming "conscious" is as big of a deal in terms of the uniqueness of the human soul. Whatever is made by man, it is made by man, non-thinking or thinking. To make something truly "ensouled" as we as humans are, God Himself must give the breath of life. Unless we discover aliens similar to man in that they have souls as we do, we probably won't ever encounter the issue of "this isn't man, but it has a soul", I don't think there's a huge theological problem if AI, or SI at that point, becomes sentient or conscious, whatever anyone wants to call it. At the end of the day, it will still be a machine, a machine that can think, reason, be self-aware, have a desire of self-preservation, etc..., but it is not going to have a soul, and if it does, then we've got a simple question, in my opinion: Does everything that contains something like a "soul" fall under the category of being "in the image of God?" Is something made in the image of man, who is in the image of God, occupy the same place as those made in the image of God?

I wonder how many people are going to Grok bot and saying "Hey Grok bot, look into all my accounts and save me from the internet Armageddon" upon seeing the news of one Indian dude setting the password or key for a massive chunk of internet services to "4."

"Elon Musk ordered Starshield to stop working for Ukriane..." No. That's not how it works. He may have had Starlink stop providing service to Ukraine, because Elon and the company do not want it used as a weapon, but Elon and the rest of SpaceX has no say over who uses or can't use Starshield. When Starshield was created, sole authority over who can and can't use it was given to the United States military/government. Starshield is an American-only system, think of it like the F22. It's a system that is meant for America and used only by America. Ukraine doesn't get Starshield, just like no one else but America gets to have F22s. If the US did allow Ukraine to use Starshield, it has the right to stop Ukrainian usage, because it belongs to America, not Ukraine. Elon Musk has no say in any of this regarding Starshield. Any headline saying Elon Musk or SpaceX took Starshield away from Ukraine, they're just lying to you, and the people defending the claim know it is a lie, but they just want another excuse to bash SpaceX.