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Pretty sure folks attempting trans-atlantic or pacific voyages in the Age of Sail weren't always promised land, or food or water. Many died, even more lived in

Pretty sure folks attempting trans-atlantic or pacific voyages in the Age of Sail weren't always promised land, or food or water. Many died, even more lived in horrible circumstances. Shackleton's Expedition comes to mind as one of the more awful experiences in human exploration. Yet we persist in exploring, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard. Humans living on another planet? That's probably worth more lives than were lost colonizing North America.

grondilu 10y ago
> Yet we persist in exploring, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard. That's a reason to go, not to stay. We like the challenge of going where nobody ever went before, but we almost always come back. When a mountain climber reaches a peak for the first time, he spends a few minutes to enjoy the view, but then he climbs down.
- cryptoz 10y ago
  No, it's a reason to stay as well. In fact, it's a reason to stay on Mars and to change Mars into a place where billions could live comfortably. Humanity is going to be expanding out to the planets and the stars, and that will be mighty difficult to do if we always come back home right away. People colonizing the New World from Europe didn't plan on coming right back, never to voyage again. They stayed, founded colonies that became the USA, who now has citizens building spaceships to colonize the planets and the stars. Marvelous.
  - grondilu 10y ago
    > People colonizing the New World from Europe didn't plan on coming right back, never to voyage again. I'm tired of this comparison with the American continent. I've expressed my opinion about it before[1], but I guess I should do it again. It's a terrible comparison. The American continent is not an other planet. It was just a place Europeans did not know about. Living there was not much different from living in Europe, and doing so did not require new technologies or anything : in fact it was already inhabited by people who were not more technologically advanced (and that's an euphemism). If mars looked anything like what America looked like before Colombus, I would totally be up to colonize it. But it does not. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584314
    - secstate 10y ago
      Pretty sure the folks of the failed N. American colonies might beg to differ [0]. The earliest settlers experienced food shortages, as their crops either failed or were in appropriate for where they landed and were under attack from folks who had issues with them being there. Actually, considering the absence of folks already living there, Mars is kind of a colonists dream in terms of being able to control the vast majority of the variables. Sure things will still go wrong and people will still die, but in terms of liberating ourselves from our 3rd rock from the sun, colonizing Mars will stand as one of the pivotal moments in Earth life-history, not just human history. 0: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploration/text6/text6read.htm http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploratio...

grondilu 10y ago

> Yet we persist in exploring, not because these things are easy, but because they are hard. That's a reason to go, not to stay. We like the challenge of going where nobody ever went before, but we almost always come back. When a mountain climber reaches a peak for the first time, he spends a few minutes to enjoy the view, but then he climbs down.

cryptoz 10y ago
No, it's a reason to stay as well. In fact, it's a reason to stay on Mars and to change Mars into a place where billions could live comfortably. Humanity is going to be expanding out to the planets and the stars, and that will be mighty difficult to do if we always come back home right away. People colonizing the New World from Europe didn't plan on coming right back, never to voyage again. They stayed, founded colonies that became the USA, who now has citizens building spaceships to colonize the planets and the stars. Marvelous.
- grondilu 10y ago
  > People colonizing the New World from Europe didn't plan on coming right back, never to voyage again. I'm tired of this comparison with the American continent. I've expressed my opinion about it before[1], but I guess I should do it again. It's a terrible comparison. The American continent is not an other planet. It was just a place Europeans did not know about. Living there was not much different from living in Europe, and doing so did not require new technologies or anything : in fact it was already inhabited by people who were not more technologically advanced (and that's an euphemism). If mars looked anything like what America looked like before Colombus, I would totally be up to colonize it. But it does not. 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584314 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584314
  - secstate 10y ago
    Pretty sure the folks of the failed N. American colonies might beg to differ [0]. The earliest settlers experienced food shortages, as their crops either failed or were in appropriate for where they landed and were under attack from folks who had issues with them being there. Actually, considering the absence of folks already living there, Mars is kind of a colonists dream in terms of being able to control the vast majority of the variables. Sure things will still go wrong and people will still die, but in terms of liberating ourselves from our 3rd rock from the sun, colonizing Mars will stand as one of the pivotal moments in Earth life-history, not just human history. 0: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploration/text6/text6read.htm http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/exploratio...