Great stuff for 1950s science fiction films: A rocket lands vertically, its engines firing to slow the descent for a soft landing. And now it’s been done. The process, called retropropulsion, really works. A rocket could actually land where it took off and in the same orientation it had at launch.
Not so for us. Once we launch, we cannot go back as we left. Once we err, the error is history. All human retropropulsion involves substituting through corrections of various kinds: Apologies, replacements, something-close-to-the-original-but-not-quite-the-same. “Good as new” is possible for objects, but often only a simulacrum for human interactions.
Maybe landing as similar to launching isn’t an ideal. Maybe landing should be different. Every launch of human misunderstanding has a context that can’t in detail be recaptured. Landings are the context for new launches. The next launch has its own context, possibly a more favorable one.
Been in an argument with someone? The two of you need to consider a reconnection as a new context, a new preparation for a new flight. Who knows what you will discover “out there”? Whatever it is, it will be different. Retropropulsion in human affairs is unattainable; the old rocket never lands in the same position it had at takeoff. Once altered, always affected in some way by the alteration. But new launches from new orientations in new contexts for new goals are always possible, even for once used rockets.
Not so for us. Once we launch, we cannot go back as we left. Once we err, the error is history. All human retropropulsion involves substituting through corrections of various kinds: Apologies, replacements, something-close-to-the-original-but-not-quite-the-same. “Good as new” is possible for objects, but often only a simulacrum for human interactions.
Maybe landing as similar to launching isn’t an ideal. Maybe landing should be different. Every launch of human misunderstanding has a context that can’t in detail be recaptured. Landings are the context for new launches. The next launch has its own context, possibly a more favorable one.
Been in an argument with someone? The two of you need to consider a reconnection as a new context, a new preparation for a new flight. Who knows what you will discover “out there”? Whatever it is, it will be different. Retropropulsion in human affairs is unattainable; the old rocket never lands in the same position it had at takeoff. Once altered, always affected in some way by the alteration. But new launches from new orientations in new contexts for new goals are always possible, even for once used rockets.
RSS Feed