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We haven't really colonized Antarctica either, but there's been a permanent human presence there since the 1940s or 1950s. Similarly, I don't know if it makes
by curtis 8y ago
We haven't really colonized Antarctica either, but there's been a permanent human presence there since the 1940s or 1950s.
Similarly, I don't know if it makes sense to colonize Mars, but I think it makes absolute sense to have permanent bases there. With a human presence on Mars we will learn things about that planet in years that will otherwise take many decades through robotic exploration.
- Koshkin 8y agoWith the “singularity” just around the corner robots will surpass humans as explorers by the time it’s decided to set up a base on Mars.
- heliumThree 8y agoSurpass is a subjective term, and an opinion. In what way will we be surpassed?
- dogma1138 8y agoSingularity is around the corner every time someone speaks of it with no clear indications that we are anywhere closer to it than 40 years ago.
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI've been hearing for years that automation will take all our jobs and leave us with crazy high permanent unemployment rates, thus necessitating some paltry UBI so useless humans can keep eating and won't revolt. Yet, a current news story informs me that unemployment is at a 49 year low.* No doubt, tech has changed the world and will continue to do so. But I increasingly take it with a grain of salt when I hear predictions about robots being superior to humans in every way and making humans obsolete for various things. * https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/05/economy/september-jobs-report/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/05/economy/september-jobs-report...
- Razengan 8y ago> useless humans How do you expect all 8 billion people to remain ““useful”” without artificially holding back technological advancement?
- DoreenMichele 8y agoIIRC, the average education level of women in the US when Lincoln was president was 2nd to 4th grade. Mrs. Lincoln had a 12th grade education. She was unusually educated and headstrong for a woman of her era. A hundred years ago, a high percentage of Americans lived and worked on farms. It was pretty common to not complete high school. This is why the military created the GED. Now, most Americans live on cities and it is stigmatizing to drop out of high school. Education levels have generally risen over the years. It seems to me that additional education beyond high school could well become a normal expectation. There have always been "useless" humans such as infants, the very old and those who are disabled. There will always be such, though we are living longer and tech (among other things) is changing things for people with disabilities. But I don't see any reason to expect, say, 80 percent permanent unemployment as the new norm. I think it is much more realistic and healthy to expect people to stay in school longer. Students are not generally counted among "the unemployed" and are generally not considered "useless," even if they don't have a paid job. Granted, there will be challenges in providing that at scale and paying for it, but, unlike UBI, it at least ties money to socially desirable outcomes and increases capacity for productivity.
- throwaway2048 8y agoYeah, its incredible the amount of people that seem to believe that colonizing mars is right around the corner, when the most inhospitable places on earth, like Antarctica are many orders of magnitude more habitable (they at least have trivial to access air and water), yet contain to a first order approximation, nobody. It also has the bonus of not being millions of kilometers away, and hundreds of billions of dollars for a small crew to reach. It feeds into the dangerous fantasy that once we ruin the earth we can all just go to mars and teraform it. We can't, not even remotely close, and neither will your grandchildren's grandchildern's grandchildren.
- fastball 8y agoWell arguably there is much less reason to colonize Antarctica than to colonize Mars. We could very easily build a colony in Antarctica - but nobody wants to live there. Plenty of people want to live on Mars.
- Pinckney 8y agoIt's not about wanting, it's about having an economic motive. Cities like La Cinconada and Norilsk are doing fine, because they have industry.
- marssaxman 8y agoI would like to live in Antarctica, but there are very few jobs, and homesteading is not really possible.