Re: Reasons for interstellar wars.

Wayne Throop wrote:

: Erik Max Francis <max@xxxxxxxxxxx>
: And some said we'd never break the sound barrier, and some said that
: the end of theoretical physics was imminent, etc. ...

Which economists said we'd never break the sound barrier?
Or more seriously, do you have cites of such a claim re: sound barrier?
It seems to be a common meme that "they" predicted it, but I don't know
of a specific person who did. I think the last time this came up,
there were some references to technical difficulties in early attempts,
or skepticism that some particular flight would exceed soundspeed,
but no general prediction of impossibility, iirc.

I wasn't referring to economists, and I wasn't referring to any specific claim. The original poster, after all, didn't site his sources, either.

I was just making the more general point that claiming that "someone" said something wasn't possible, or that something was coming to an end, etc. is not of pretty much any of use at all. Whether or not there really was someone that actually said such a thing, because often in these kind of anecdotes, there wasn't.

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