Falling for Stunts

I'm surprised by how much attention Felix Baumgartner's extreme skydive has gotten.  I checked Twitter today and found that it was dominating discussion.  Normally the motley band of semi-intellectuals I follow on Twitter are at most only ironically interested in the touchstones of popular culture.

I kind of saw this as another guy-with-too-much-time-on-his-hands stunt.  For a long time these always seemed to be dull long-distance-ballooning record attempts.  They'd get far more media attention than they deserved, and no one seemed to care.  But I guess this is quite a bit more difficult and death-defying, so perhaps the uncynical adulation for Baumgartner is deserved.

However, I'm saddened by the number of people somehow tying this in to the achievements of space exploration.  It further convinces me that for many, the space program has been just a big publicity stunt.  But then, with this going on at the same time NASA is making headlines primarily in Los Angeles it's hard to blame them for that point of view.

But if we can just keep this stunt in perspective, it should be good for humanity: it's raised the bar for public stunts tremendously.  Just think how far David Blaine will have to go to get people's attention now.