3 ms·
At the end of the day, profit determines reality. And that's where futurists have always screwed up, because profit funds solutions. Nobody has colonized Antar
by ethbr0 5y ago
At the end of the day, profit determines reality. And that's where futurists have always screwed up, because profit funds solutions.
Nobody has colonized Antarctica not because it's impossible, but because it's difficult enough and useless enough that we all agreed on a treaty prohibiting it.
In contrast, we constructed the 63 radars (some with bases) of the DEW line in the late 1950s in under 3 years, with part of the Air Force's budget. Because it was useful.
Establishing a Mars colony is not impossible, it's just extremely hard. Which means expensive. Which means it needs a justification. Which is what I think the knee-jerk is really about.
And is a fair opinion. You may think interplanetary colonization should not be a priority. I think it should.
- datavirtue 5y agoFantasies. None of us will be known or remembered. We will never colonize the universe in these bodies.
- ddingus 5y agoSeems to me we are nowhere near the level of maturity needed to even suggest colonization. Our basic priorities are not in order and that is true for a lot of the world. Tons of people need solutions now to problems we can solve, and we do not solve them because those priorities are not in order. And with that, there goes that justification. Higher priority items include: Not shitting where we eat, A much reduced focus on killing one another. There are many others. I agree with the other commenter. It may be very frustrating and disappointing to get married to those ideas. No one reading here is going to see them.