this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 26 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (7 children)

The reason why spaceflight stagnated for 50 years is because IT came in the middle of it.

All the smart people went to build computers instead of rockets, and now we have smartphones and the internet.

Now that IT is stagnating (enshittification), smart people will probably go back to spaceflight.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 46 points 4 days ago (4 children)

All the smart people went to build computers instead of rockets, and now we have smartphones and the internet.

I work in software, most of my peers are not spacefaring material. The issue is budget and ability/desire to do things that are bold instead of sending robots up there.

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Sure, but is bet some of them would be pretty useful for programming fuel pump controllers or navigation systems. Neil Armstrong flew Apollo 11, he didn't design or build it.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No, they would not. The kind of software development done in aerospace is very, very different from the commercial industry at large. Writing 20 lines per week might be considered a breakneck pace because of all the formal verification that needs to be done on every single line.

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Eh, some parts are that critical but also someone has to write the logic for the bathroom occupancy light.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 days ago

How many people is that going to employ?

Remember, this thread started by saying "smart people" got sidetracked into IT rather than building rockets. There are a lot of problems with that claim, but at the very least, it has to assume that these less important items would be able to employ lots and lots of programmers.

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