Guest: Dr. Andrew Rader; Topics: Dr. Rader discuss his new book, "Beyond The Know," and in the process provided us with the history of exploration up to and including space travel.
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We welcomed Dr. Andrew Rader to this one segment 78 minute discussion regarding his new book on ancient and early exploration which has evolved today to space travel exploration and may soon evolve even more to include interstellar travel. Dr. Rader started the discussion by introducing us to the book and ancient exploration expeditions. As we went forward in time, we also talked about technology and engineering that evolved with the times, the missions, the outcomes, the expeditions, explorations, and at times even the failures. His book was divided into four parts. Part One focused on the early world, the period of antiquity and the Classical World. Dr. Rader mentioned related details relevant to the history he was writing about in a most informative and compelling way.
Part 2 of the book focused expanding from the Classical World or as the author put it, "Rediscovering The World." Andrew took us through the exploration and the key people from the Mediterranean, China, India, the reasons for the big explorations, the outcomes and more.
Part 3 was titled Modernity, implying the more modern world was coming into play. Andrew explained commercial and trade route expeditions, private commercial expeditions, government expeditions for flags and footsteps and even commercial partnerships with the crown for riches and more riches. This period included aviation, space, and the start of the AI-Robotic age. Notice that technology and engineering played a larger and larger role as global exploration expanded and used up more and more tech to accomplish the mission of the expedition.
Part 4 of the book was titled "Becoming Star Trek" as it addressed the future which was a major focus that Andrew brought to the discussion. In this part plus Part 3, the subject of risk averseness and risk taking among the ancients without much regulation became a bigger part of the discussion. At one point near the end of our program, we had a full blown risk taking - risk averse discussion. Note what our guest said about his concerns regarding our becoming more and more risk averse and why that concerned him. He even, tongue in cheek, talked about being able to do explorations in the future by streaming them n the internet or with virtual reality so we never have to leave our couch. He wondered if we might be evolving toward that condition?
Aerospace engineering and aviation became a larger part of our discussion as we moved through time to the more modern world. At times, I asked Andrew what today's aerospace engineers might have had in common with ancient or even classical period engineers. In fact, I asked him if the aerospace engineer of today had roots going back to the ancients and the classical explorers. This back and forth discussion took place as we neared the end of our program. Note what he said about naval technology, ship design, time lines and time periods, and incentives for expeditions and explorations. Pay attention to attributes of some of the cultures that he focused on, including the Chinese and Ottoman Empire as bad apple examples. Another topic talked about with some of the earlier time frame expeditions and explorations was the use of unsuitable technology but then he shows us how that contributed to the ultimate expedition and history. He cited several examples.
As we neared the end of the program, Andrew suggested we visit his website www.andrew-rader.com for more info. While the book won't be published until Nov. 12, it can be pre-ordered on Amazon and other sites. Remember, if you buy the book on Amazon, do so via The Space Show/OGLF portal so that Amazon will support TSS. Follow the instructions on the big Amazon link in the center of our home page. You might want to think of this book for holiday gift giving given its publication date and the approaching holiday season. Having read a pre-published media copy of the book, I can tell you that it is a fascinating read, very informative, very educational, and quite the attention holder.
Please post your comments/questions for Dr. Rader on TSS blog page for this program. You can reach our guest through me or his website.
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