My friends like to remind me of it when they want to remind me how many times they've saved my butt, [Tony contributes cheerfully. Bless you, Rhodey, for helping him cheat on his theater final.]
It is, sometimes, [he replies, more seriously, to Enjolras's second comment.] In the fifties and sixties there was this big push to go into space, because Russia and the US were competing with each other for technological superiority, but then... stuff happened [- a whole lot of really interesting and important history, but, you know, let's not get bogged down in the details -] and it all kind of petered out. Technological innovation didn't stop, or anything, but I guess people decided they wanted to focus on improving what we have on the planet instead of trying to find out what's beyond it.
[He puts his chin in his hand, looking a bit melancholy.] Not sure how well that's worked out for us. I mean, the advances in computers have been insane, but then... trillions of dollars get spent on the military while NASA can barely pay rent.
[To put it more succinctly: The Space Race is to rocket scientists what the Library of Alexandria is to historians. Which might be an analogy it would occur to Tony to make, if he knew what the Library of Alexandria was.]
...Maybe that's going to change, now, though. [He says it like he's just realizing it for the first time, and looks pensively off into the middle distance.]
no subject
It is, sometimes, [he replies, more seriously, to Enjolras's second comment.] In the fifties and sixties there was this big push to go into space, because Russia and the US were competing with each other for technological superiority, but then... stuff happened [- a whole lot of really interesting and important history, but, you know, let's not get bogged down in the details -] and it all kind of petered out. Technological innovation didn't stop, or anything, but I guess people decided they wanted to focus on improving what we have on the planet instead of trying to find out what's beyond it.
[He puts his chin in his hand, looking a bit melancholy.] Not sure how well that's worked out for us. I mean, the advances in computers have been insane, but then... trillions of dollars get spent on the military while NASA can barely pay rent.
[To put it more succinctly: The Space Race is to rocket scientists what the Library of Alexandria is to historians. Which might be an analogy it would occur to Tony to make, if he knew what the Library of Alexandria was.]
...Maybe that's going to change, now, though. [He says it like he's just realizing it for the first time, and looks pensively off into the middle distance.]