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Comment by dpflan | Hacker News Reader

Conceptually, I agree with your idea. I would like a lottery to emerge for anyone to get a space flight to experience the overview effect -- something I think that could reinvigorate interest in science and the planet.

Now I wonder if the Overview Effect can be addictive...

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I'd need some serious convincing to accept that sending a randomly selected person into space would have anything close to the positive impact that sending the "Larry Ellison"s of the world into space could.

I agree - I’m all for fairness, but billionaires could come back to Earth and redirect billions of dollars. All I could do is, I dunno, write a medium post.

You're assuming there's zero benefit to experiencing space second-hand. Even if that effect is very small, it applies to enough people that it quickly overtakes any large first-hand effect.

America watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon had a much bigger effect than Neil Armstrong ever could have, even if he was the richest man alive.

But does America watching John Smith from NYC in space have a larger impact than seeing Larry Ellison (also from NYC) in space? Is that difference large enough to outweigh the impact that changing Ellison's worldview could have?

Also, if seeing people in space has such a huge impact... Can anyone name someone currently on the ISS from memory? I don't think the marginal impact of seeing more people in space is necessarily large.

John Smith from Queens is far more relatable than Larry Ellis is or ever will be. Nobody who isn’t being paid cares what Larry Ellis says now and going to space won’t change that.

Knowing any average person can accomplish their goals is far more motivating to many people, especially kids, than knowing the super rich can just up and leave the world and do absolutely anything they desire just because they find ways to extract wealth from the 99.9% who are only allowed to dream.

I agree, the potential impact of the individual is lower. It's not to say that the individual can have the same impact; it's primarily the system that promotes the opportunity that could have the impact on society, perhaps inspiring many, many more people. Not just to go to space but build technology, to manage organizations, etc that are part of space industry. Making space seem more accessible, rather than a luxury experience for the super-wealthy could have positive effects too.

Who knows, it’s all hypothesizing with dashes of optimism.

Seriously - I can't tell if you're being:

1. on topic (overview effect), or

2a. joking ("haha - send jerks like Ellison into space - one way ticket!"), or

2b. not joking ("send jerks like Ellison into space - one way ticket").

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