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None of those are on another planet - it changes the value proposition.
by Miraste 5y ago
None of those are on another planet - it changes the value proposition.
- tsimionescu 5y agoYes, it makes it much less valuable, since anything of value you can produce is much harder to bring into our normal economy. If we were talking about another planet in another solar system, you could have some arguments about long term survival, but otherwise the earth will at worse become as inhospitable as Mars, until the sun burns them both to a crisp at about the same time in a distant future.
- Miraste 5y agoThere are all kinds of cataclysms that would end humanity on Earth while leaving Mars untouched. Global nuclear war, asteroids, and solar flares are three relatively likely ones that come to mind.
- tsimionescu 5y agoGlobal nuclear war would neither wipe out humanity nor leave the earth in any shape nearly as bad as Mars, either in terms of temperature, radiation, atmosphere, soil quality etc. Similarly, any asteroid impact of a size that the Earth has seen since life appeared would neither wipe out ALL of humanity nor leave the Earth in a shape as horrible as Mars is in right now. Edit: we know this for sure, because even after the asteroid that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, human sized and larger animals survived and thrived through the impact and fallback, despite having no access to any kind of technology or preparation. If the cold-blooded crocodiles could do it, I'm not worried about our chances. Solar flares do not count as earth-ending events, at worst they could destroy our current electric networks and kill and strand maybe millions, but they are not in any way civilization-ending, nevermind life-on-earth ending as far as I know.