Prompt:

“Manned space flight is costly and dangerous. Moreover, the recent success of a series of unmanned space probes and satellites has demonstrated that a great deal of useful information can be gathered without the costs and risks associated with sending men and women into space. Therefore, we should invest our resources in unmanned space flight.”

My Response:

The author argues that since, according to him, manned space flight is costly and dengerous and since we had recent successes of gathering useful information by launching unmanned space probes, we should continue the trend and only invest in unmanned space flights. However, the author's argument is not compelling for many reasons which I will describe in the following paragraphs.

First and foremost, the author was very thin on specifics. He argues in general terms without pointing to one or a group of specific manned flights that cost direly and imposed great risks on its crews. He never mentions any examples of those successful unmanned trips. He even does not detail the kind of useful information that was gathered by those low risk, quite cheap unmanned space flights.

Furthermore, the author makes a generalizing fault by arguing that since unmanned space probes and satellites were able to gather useful information, they will quite effectively replace human involvement in these trips. Unlike programmed machines, humans have the ability to discover unplanned new findings. The human's powerful mental ability to analyze and conclude new findings cannot be replaced with a programmed machine that can only function as it was instructed. By suggesting that we invest only on those machines, the author deprives humanity from new discoveries that can only be realized through human's observation.

Finally, even if we submit to the validity of the general statement of the writer about the recent success of a series of unmanned space flights, we cannot decisively conclude that these successes are going to continue. To provide a strong argument, the author ought to discuss the underlying facts that led to these successes and argue to their validity to any future unmanned space trips.

In conclusion, the author does not provide a compelling evidence that unmanned flights were successful in the first place and that they will continue to be. The author was thin on specifics. He ought to give live examples and concrete statistics to support his claims. He also needs to explain the underlying reasons behind those successes and aruge to their continuous validity in the future. Lastly, he should not generalize and still admits to the usefulness of human equipped trips since human's ability to discover cannot be replaced by any machines.