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Anyone that has seen Blade Runner and the news should see that as a concern. The rich would spoil Earth and defile it and then move off to the ultimate gated c

Anyone that has seen Blade Runner and the news should see that as a concern. The rich would spoil Earth and defile it and then move off to the ultimate gated community of Mars, leaving us to deal with the consequences of their actions.

pixl97 5y ago
This has always been a bad idea based of unrealistic science fiction. Mars is the spoiled planet, and will be until some point technology is a lot further along. The rich are not going to run away to some wonderland. Earth is the garden, and nothing else is like it in space.
- handrous 5y ago
  Yep. The list of things that could make Earth a worse place to live than Mars is very short. A big enough asteroid to liquefy the entire crust would do it, for a while. A "mere" dinosaur-killer wouldn't be enough. Nor would nuclear war. Most of the rest of the options are still sci-fi, like Grey Goo events, or a very contagious very deadly infectious disease (and that would have to have some way of sticking around for a long time, for an orbital habitat or sealed earthbound habitat not to still be better than Mars, since you could get back more easily once it was gone or we had a way to fight it). Otherwise you've gotta start stacking disasters to get close, and even then it's pretty difficult. Mars is really bad.
- wonderwonder 5y ago
  Agreed, I think another thing missed by so many is that if we can settle mars that same technology can be used here on earth to make inhospitable parts of the planet usable again should we mess it up badly enough.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
  Yes I know that. But do THEY know that? I’m not so sure. Elon/Bezos seem to think you can hand wave/buy the radiation away like they do their problems on earth. Maybe with absolutely massive amounts of money they could find a way. And we would be the ones footing the bill for that.
- Ekaros 5y ago
  Just look at decadence in rather inhospitable environments on earth... Let's take Dupai or some deserts in USA with golf courses. No way whole Earth will get worse than that. And basically we already have luxury lifes in such places, air conditioned malls, apartments, cars. Over use of water to water lawns... Also, it is not like you couldn't vastly more cheaply and easily build Mars bunker on Earth. As we are centuries away from planet scale geo-engineering.
- Eelongate 5y ago
  Look no further than Jeff Bezos's recent comments to see confirmation of this. He wants to turn Earth into a nature reserve with most people living off planet. In other words, he wants to kick us filthy serfs off 'his' planet. In his mind, we would be the ones living in the space mines trying to earn enough money for occasional short vacations to earth, garden planet for the rich. Living on Earth is every human's birthright, but if Jeff gets his way that will change.
maxerickson 5y ago
We don't have the technology to make Mars anything better than a miserable hell. If we did, it would still work better to just use it here on some isolated land.
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  No no, didn't you read the article? With Starship we could launch 12 * 100,000 30m wide light sails and heat up Mars! Such a ridiculous idea puts the rest of the article in a very questionable light for me.
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    It is a fact that we could launch light sails, and even heat up Mars a bit. The idea might be silly, but at least it is thinking big. Some other big idea will be better, including several of those listed after the light-sails bit. The earth-sized radio telescope made out of Starlink transceivers is an obvious winner. Total coverage ground radar using the transceiver antenna is another.
  - Ekaros 5y ago
    If such thing could be used to heat up Mars, could it be used to cool down Earth?
- whatshisface 5y ago
  The technology to make mars psychologically livable may simply be having some people grow up there.
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    The comment I replied to was about people with wealth and power "escaping" there.

pixl97 5y ago

This has always been a bad idea based of unrealistic science fiction. Mars is the spoiled planet, and will be until some point technology is a lot further along. The rich are not going to run away to some wonderland. Earth is the garden, and nothing else is like it in space.

handrous 5y ago
Yep. The list of things that could make Earth a worse place to live than Mars is very short. A big enough asteroid to liquefy the entire crust would do it, for a while. A "mere" dinosaur-killer wouldn't be enough. Nor would nuclear war. Most of the rest of the options are still sci-fi, like Grey Goo events, or a very contagious very deadly infectious disease (and that would have to have some way of sticking around for a long time, for an orbital habitat or sealed earthbound habitat not to still be better than Mars, since you could get back more easily once it was gone or we had a way to fight it). Otherwise you've gotta start stacking disasters to get close, and even then it's pretty difficult. Mars is really bad.
wonderwonder 5y ago
Agreed, I think another thing missed by so many is that if we can settle mars that same technology can be used here on earth to make inhospitable parts of the planet usable again should we mess it up badly enough.
JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
Yes I know that. But do THEY know that? I’m not so sure. Elon/Bezos seem to think you can hand wave/buy the radiation away like they do their problems on earth. Maybe with absolutely massive amounts of money they could find a way. And we would be the ones footing the bill for that.
Ekaros 5y ago
Just look at decadence in rather inhospitable environments on earth... Let's take Dupai or some deserts in USA with golf courses. No way whole Earth will get worse than that. And basically we already have luxury lifes in such places, air conditioned malls, apartments, cars. Over use of water to water lawns... Also, it is not like you couldn't vastly more cheaply and easily build Mars bunker on Earth. As we are centuries away from planet scale geo-engineering.
Eelongate 5y ago
Look no further than Jeff Bezos's recent comments to see confirmation of this. He wants to turn Earth into a nature reserve with most people living off planet. In other words, he wants to kick us filthy serfs off 'his' planet. In his mind, we would be the ones living in the space mines trying to earn enough money for occasional short vacations to earth, garden planet for the rich. Living on Earth is every human's birthright, but if Jeff gets his way that will change.

maxerickson 5y ago

We don't have the technology to make Mars anything better than a miserable hell. If we did, it would still work better to just use it here on some isolated land.

tsimionescu 5y ago
No no, didn't you read the article? With Starship we could launch 12 * 100,000 30m wide light sails and heat up Mars! Such a ridiculous idea puts the rest of the article in a very questionable light for me.
- ncmncm 5y ago
  It is a fact that we could launch light sails, and even heat up Mars a bit. The idea might be silly, but at least it is thinking big. Some other big idea will be better, including several of those listed after the light-sails bit. The earth-sized radio telescope made out of Starlink transceivers is an obvious winner. Total coverage ground radar using the transceiver antenna is another.
- Ekaros 5y ago
  If such thing could be used to heat up Mars, could it be used to cool down Earth?
whatshisface 5y ago
The technology to make mars psychologically livable may simply be having some people grow up there.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  The comment I replied to was about people with wealth and power "escaping" there.