5 ms·

It’s time to claim your piece of the final frontier

25 points by snadahalli 11y ago

lisper 11y ago
There is a discussion that ought to precede the discussion of space colonization, but which almost never happens. Before we can decide whether or not "we" should colonize space we first need to decide who and what "we" actually are. The tacit assumption is that "we" are homo sapiens, that is, the flesh and blood phenotype of the human genome. But that might not be the best answer. Another possible answer is that "we" are our ideas, our culture, our art, our philosophy, our scientific knowledge, and that this transcends our biology. In other words, maybe what matters is the software, not the hardware. The reason this is worth considering is that it's a hell of a lot easier to send our software to other planets than our biological hardware. Our bodies have evolved to live on this planet. Sending human bodies into space is rather like putting a fish in a ziploc bag full of water in the middle of the Sahara desert and expecting it to thrive.
- pekk 11y ago
  Okay, so we decide that we are our art, and now we are shooting jazz CDs to Mars. Or other art, sent to other places where there is no audience. What then? Why? The logical conclusion of this thinking seems to be that we really have no business in space at all.
  - lisper 11y ago
    Well, it's hard to lay out a complete agenda for this program in an HN comment. But the vision I had in mind looked more like colonies of self-reproducing artificially intelligent robots than a bunch of CD-ROMs.
    - zardo 11y ago
      Of course, part of the reason for wanting to be on multiple planets in the first place, is how wrong things can go when you have the technology for that.
- 0xffff2 11y ago
  Regardless of whether the human "hardware" is the important bit, we are producing hundreds of thousands of new "hardware units" every single day. One of the primary drivers behind colonization of the solar system is that it simply isn't possible to provide a comfortable lifestyle for every human already on Earth, much less all those that are coming. Of course, if we get to a point where we can upload human consciousness to anything other than biological grey matter inside a human skull, all bets are off, but I think it's hard to argue that we might achieve that breakthrough before we could colonize Mars at the very least.
  - lisper 11y ago
    http://blog.rongarret.info/2015/10/colonizing-space-wont-save-us.html http://blog.rongarret.info/2015/10/colonizing-space-wont-sav...
kafkaesq 11y ago
Space is for sale. No - it's up for seizure by force. Just like every other "frontier" since our species climbed down from the trees.

25 points by snadahalli 11y ago

There is a discussion that ought to precede the discussion of space colonization, but which almost never happens. Before we can decide whether or not "we" should colonize space we first need to decide who and what "we" actually are. The tacit assumption is that "we" are homo sapiens, that is, the flesh and blood phenotype of the human genome. But that might not be the best answer. Another possible answer is that "we" are our ideas, our culture, our art, our philosophy, our scientific knowledge, and that this transcends our biology. In other words, maybe what matters is the software, not the hardware. The reason this is worth considering is that it's a hell of a lot easier to send our software to other planets than our biological hardware. Our bodies have evolved to live on this planet. Sending human bodies into space is rather like putting a fish in a ziploc bag full of water in the middle of the Sahara desert and expecting it to thrive.

pekk 11y ago
Okay, so we decide that we are our art, and now we are shooting jazz CDs to Mars. Or other art, sent to other places where there is no audience. What then? Why? The logical conclusion of this thinking seems to be that we really have no business in space at all.
- lisper 11y ago
  Well, it's hard to lay out a complete agenda for this program in an HN comment. But the vision I had in mind looked more like colonies of self-reproducing artificially intelligent robots than a bunch of CD-ROMs.
  - zardo 11y ago
    Of course, part of the reason for wanting to be on multiple planets in the first place, is how wrong things can go when you have the technology for that.
0xffff2 11y ago
Regardless of whether the human "hardware" is the important bit, we are producing hundreds of thousands of new "hardware units" every single day. One of the primary drivers behind colonization of the solar system is that it simply isn't possible to provide a comfortable lifestyle for every human already on Earth, much less all those that are coming. Of course, if we get to a point where we can upload human consciousness to anything other than biological grey matter inside a human skull, all bets are off, but I think it's hard to argue that we might achieve that breakthrough before we could colonize Mars at the very least.
- lisper 11y ago
  http://blog.rongarret.info/2015/10/colonizing-space-wont-save-us.html http://blog.rongarret.info/2015/10/colonizing-space-wont-sav...

kafkaesq 11y ago

Space is for sale. No - it's up for seizure by force. Just like every other "frontier" since our species climbed down from the trees.