5 ms·

Underground is the only way to live on Mars. So if you can find people on Earth who want to spend all their time underground (with no external food/water/air su

Underground is the only way to live on Mars. So if you can find people on Earth who want to spend all their time underground (with no external food/water/air supply network to fall back on), you have a start. The next step is finding people who want to live in a permanent totalitarian technodictatorship, given that one small act, say a minor hvac compromise, is all that it would take to kill everyone in the Mars colony within hours. Seriously, on Mars, the consequence of the smallest criminal action is colony genocide. Think of the social and legal consequences of that. Presumption of innocence is too expensive when the consequence of crime is everybody dies.

alexgmcm 7y ago
Isn't this quite similar to the scientific bases that exist on the Antarctic though? I mean I imagine any Mars colony could be incredibly selective about who to take.
- Filligree 7y ago
  You can be selective about who you take, but only so long as it's a small group. I'd hesitate to call it a proper colony if there's no way they can ever raise children there.
  - squirrelicus 7y ago
    Some people barely want to birth on Earth, where there's freedom and opportunity and sights to see and a very vague threat of potential modest temperature increase where you can just walk away at a snail's pace from the climate change threats. I wonder what kind of people would want to raise a child in underground technodictatorial Mars colonies
- squirrelicus 7y ago
  Not quite because you can still go outside where there's air and water and you can bring fire with you to keep warm.
selimthegrim 7y ago
I think Paul Verhoeven and PKD might have beaten you to this one.
phkahler 7y ago
They'll need tunnel boring machines to carve out new space, and enough equipment to bootstrap production of everything. That's a lot, but then they could branch out and groups could conceivably split off.

alexgmcm 7y ago

Isn't this quite similar to the scientific bases that exist on the Antarctic though? I mean I imagine any Mars colony could be incredibly selective about who to take.

Filligree 7y ago
You can be selective about who you take, but only so long as it's a small group. I'd hesitate to call it a proper colony if there's no way they can ever raise children there.
- squirrelicus 7y ago
  Some people barely want to birth on Earth, where there's freedom and opportunity and sights to see and a very vague threat of potential modest temperature increase where you can just walk away at a snail's pace from the climate change threats. I wonder what kind of people would want to raise a child in underground technodictatorial Mars colonies
squirrelicus 7y ago
Not quite because you can still go outside where there's air and water and you can bring fire with you to keep warm.

selimthegrim 7y ago

I think Paul Verhoeven and PKD might have beaten you to this one.

phkahler 7y ago

They'll need tunnel boring machines to carve out new space, and enough equipment to bootstrap production of everything. That's a lot, but then they could branch out and groups could conceivably split off.