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I hope that if we have ~10k people go there and die horrible deaths from starvation or live Instagramified horrifyingly bleak lives, then perhaps people on eart

I hope that if we have ~10k people go there and die horrible deaths from starvation or live Instagramified horrifyingly bleak lives, then perhaps people on earth will start to feel trapped on this earth and to start to respect it more. My wife and I go every year to a film festival called "One World" in Prague. Once, we went to a film called "The War Show"[1]. A shaky cellphone shot documentary about Syria's civil war, in which the real camera-woman dies. I always was glad I lived in stable democracies with human rights. But before I watched that film, I didn't have real respect for the fragility and preciousness of democratic institutions. But now I do. I cried for hours after watching that film. I want everyone to have an experience like that, with regards to our precious earth and nature, before it is too late. [1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5719108/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5719108/

always_good 9y ago
I don't think you're giving the human brain enough credit for its ability to take everything for granted. For example, every smoker knows what it's doing to their own body. Some even have endured catastrophe like loved ones dying to smoking-related disease. But they still smoke. Even when they develop a chronic cough and barely have the lung fortitude to inflate a balloon. I'm not sure how you can expect people to care about people dying 200 million kilometers away. Nor how something as abstract and distant as the survival of humanity is supposed to compel people into action when immediate threats right here on earth don't.
- timthelion 9y ago
  Well my philosophy is that it is likely that you are right. Indeed, there is a high chance that there is no hope for the human race and no point in trying to save it, given that it is evil and doesn't deserve to be saved anyways. However, given that we are the only life in the known universe, this leads to a nihilistic conclusion. The nice thing about nihilistic conclusions is that they are like wildcards. They say nothing about what one should and should not do. If there is no hope and no point, there is no reason not to try, because trying is no worse than not trying. There is no reason not to hope, because hoping is no worse than not hoping. Basically, nihilistic conclusions should have no effect on the reasoning of a rational person. So even if there is %99.99 chance that everything is hopeless and meaningless, we can disregard that %99.99 and focus on the %0.01 chance of hope. That is why I am hopeful, that a mars colony could be an eye opener for us. Because hope is the only meaningful possibility. Imagine that you find yourself paralyzed, unable to feel, and blind. You can hear nothing, feel nothing, and see nothing. And you see a randomly blinking light. You are quite sure that the blinking is random. Would you try to find sense in the pattern of blinking? You are %99.99 sure that it is random. But why should that certainly dissuade you from trying to find a pattern? Would any rational person not try?

always_good 9y ago

I don't think you're giving the human brain enough credit for its ability to take everything for granted. For example, every smoker knows what it's doing to their own body. Some even have endured catastrophe like loved ones dying to smoking-related disease. But they still smoke. Even when they develop a chronic cough and barely have the lung fortitude to inflate a balloon. I'm not sure how you can expect people to care about people dying 200 million kilometers away. Nor how something as abstract and distant as the survival of humanity is supposed to compel people into action when immediate threats right here on earth don't.

timthelion 9y ago
Well my philosophy is that it is likely that you are right. Indeed, there is a high chance that there is no hope for the human race and no point in trying to save it, given that it is evil and doesn't deserve to be saved anyways. However, given that we are the only life in the known universe, this leads to a nihilistic conclusion. The nice thing about nihilistic conclusions is that they are like wildcards. They say nothing about what one should and should not do. If there is no hope and no point, there is no reason not to try, because trying is no worse than not trying. There is no reason not to hope, because hoping is no worse than not hoping. Basically, nihilistic conclusions should have no effect on the reasoning of a rational person. So even if there is %99.99 chance that everything is hopeless and meaningless, we can disregard that %99.99 and focus on the %0.01 chance of hope. That is why I am hopeful, that a mars colony could be an eye opener for us. Because hope is the only meaningful possibility. Imagine that you find yourself paralyzed, unable to feel, and blind. You can hear nothing, feel nothing, and see nothing. And you see a randomly blinking light. You are quite sure that the blinking is random. Would you try to find sense in the pattern of blinking? You are %99.99 sure that it is random. But why should that certainly dissuade you from trying to find a pattern? Would any rational person not try?