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There's a simple explanation for Musk's views on the dangers of AI: it's too dangerous to develop on Earth, it must be regulated. OTOH, you can go to Mars where

There's a simple explanation for Musk's views on the dangers of AI: it's too dangerous to develop on Earth, it must be regulated. OTOH, you can go to Mars where you don't have to worry about such dangers and would be free to pursue all sorts of research (AI, genetics etc) that's too dangerous for Earth. Everybody knows getting to Mars is his life's work, but he doesn't want to just get there, he wants to colonize it. The first several thousand people will absolutely risk their lives for the sense of adventure and novelty alone (I could be amongst them), but you're not going to get masses of hundreds of thousands of people moving for this reasons, which will wear off quickly anyway. All previous mass movements had a strong economic incentive of some kind - getting land, getting gold, trading natural resources for gold, etc. Mars isn't going to be sending raw material back like the fur traders did, and even after 2C global warming Earth will still be way more hospitable than Mars. If Mars can become the only place where certain classes of activity are allowed, if it's the only place where you can go an experiment and test with little or no oversight, then exchange your findings for money from Earth, then I can't see a more powerful economic driver for getting masses of people there.

txmx2000 9y ago
This is science fiction. 100% fantasy.
otakucode 9y ago
I expect some of the first people to arrive on Mars will be military or police or both. When was the last time you even saw scifi where the civilians got there first and had the opportunity to build something new? No, the governments on Earth will absolutely see Mars as a new colony they own, and their laws apply there. It takes too much infrastructure to get there to figure they'll let people do it and face the almost inevitable threat of them declaring 'independence' once they're out of the range of ballistic weaponry. So send the weaponry with them, along with authority-projectors. The idea of a fresh start to human society, of being able to jettison some of the things that only stick around because everyone has forgotten why they were started in the first place, is one of those things that's just too good to be true. Possible, certainly, but too potentially dangerous for those trying to hold onto the status quo back on the homeworld.

txmx2000 9y ago

This is science fiction. 100% fantasy.

otakucode 9y ago

I expect some of the first people to arrive on Mars will be military or police or both. When was the last time you even saw scifi where the civilians got there first and had the opportunity to build something new? No, the governments on Earth will absolutely see Mars as a new colony they own, and their laws apply there. It takes too much infrastructure to get there to figure they'll let people do it and face the almost inevitable threat of them declaring 'independence' once they're out of the range of ballistic weaponry. So send the weaponry with them, along with authority-projectors. The idea of a fresh start to human society, of being able to jettison some of the things that only stick around because everyone has forgotten why they were started in the first place, is one of those things that's just too good to be true. Possible, certainly, but too potentially dangerous for those trying to hold onto the status quo back on the homeworld.