On Asteroids

And, on the matter of risk, how are we to respond to the possibility of an asteroid impact? There's running around screaming, of course, or, at the other end of the scale, there's the if-an-asteroid's-got my-number-on-it shrug. The anti-asteroid programme being suggested is over at the screaming end of things and seems to be a very ambitious attempt to make the universe a bit safer for people.  The short-sighted dinosaurs never saw the need. I am tempted to see such impacts as forest fires - violent but necessary. After all, if the one that wiped out the dinosaurs hadn't happened, the mammals could never have made their move. Come, friendly asteroids, and fall on earth.