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Why did Homo Erectus leave Africa? Why did early humans cross the land bring into the Americas? What could have possibly possessed the aborigines to cross the o

Why did Homo Erectus leave Africa? Why did early humans cross the land bring into the Americas? What could have possibly possessed the aborigines to cross the ocean to Australia? Because its cool. Because its interesting. Because it is baked into our monkey brains to want to explore. If people want to push the frontier, why are you such a grump about it?

gambiting 5y ago
I'm positively certain that in all of your examples people have pushed into new areas because of food, to find new land to live on, to find riches, to find the promised land or other mythological reasons. Somehow I don't imagine aborigines crossing the ocean because "it's cool". You know what we're going to find on Mars? Rocks. A whole lot of radiation. No breathable atmosphere and freezing temperatures. Imagine the most hellish place on Earth - that's still better for humans than the most pleasant place on Mars. Would it be "cool" to stand on Mars? To stand on another planet? Of course it would. And I firmly believe that we should continue our planetary explanation - but making plans for human habitation on Mars when we haven't even been back to the Moon in 50+ years is literally just stupid. Put a base there, learn how to make it self sufficient and then let's talk about Mars.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  Like if you could build something awesome on Mars it would pretty much universally be easier to build it in North Dakota.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    Sure. It's easier to build in North Dakota than it is in the Swiss Alps, too, but people do that in part because they like the Alps. There are going to be people for whom the idea of a frontier life in a place of natural, untouched beauty appeals. We've always had those folks. Some of them find life is harder than they expected; some thrive.
    - maxerickson 5y ago
      There has always been new opportunity at frontiers. Mars is just harsher than anywhere on earth. There's less of everything other than space and harmful radiation (and you sort of have to make the space that you want/need when you get there...)
- signatoremo 5y ago
  > I'm positively certain that in all of your examples people have pushed into new areas because of food, to find new land to live on, to find riches, to find the promised land or other mythological reasons First of all, you can’t be positively certain of those. We don’t have access to the reasoning of why the Vikings decided to cross the Artic to America, or Polynesians crossing the Pacific. Second of all, let’s say they did go to look for food. Are you sure they ran out of land to grow food, or forest for hunting that they had to look for new land? The answer is quite resounding no. Likewise, we don’t have to exhaust all of the resource on Earth before exploring other planets. Finally, what were those mythological reasons you listed there, if not the desire of human being to explore?
  - gambiting 5y ago
    >>Are you sure they ran out of land to grow food, or forest for hunting that they had to look for new land? The answer is quite resounding no. The answer is an absolute and resounding yes, because that's exactly what hunter gatherers do - they move with the herds and where the food is. This isn't just an educated guess, we know this because there are still hunter tribes on Earth right now which do exactly this. >>Finally, what were those mythological reasons you listed there, if not the desire of human being to explore? We have historical records of entire tribes moving purely due to religious reasons, either believing that land somewhere else is sacred, or that the land they are on currently is condemned. If you think your deity lives over the horizon, then you get on your boat and go in that direction. Yes ultimately it's a desire to explore, but it's not just because it's "cool".

gambiting 5y ago

I'm positively certain that in all of your examples people have pushed into new areas because of food, to find new land to live on, to find riches, to find the promised land or other mythological reasons. Somehow I don't imagine aborigines crossing the ocean because "it's cool". You know what we're going to find on Mars? Rocks. A whole lot of radiation. No breathable atmosphere and freezing temperatures. Imagine the most hellish place on Earth - that's still better for humans than the most pleasant place on Mars. Would it be "cool" to stand on Mars? To stand on another planet? Of course it would. And I firmly believe that we should continue our planetary explanation - but making plans for human habitation on Mars when we haven't even been back to the Moon in 50+ years is literally just stupid. Put a base there, learn how to make it self sufficient and then let's talk about Mars.

maxerickson 5y ago
Like if you could build something awesome on Mars it would pretty much universally be easier to build it in North Dakota.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  Sure. It's easier to build in North Dakota than it is in the Swiss Alps, too, but people do that in part because they like the Alps. There are going to be people for whom the idea of a frontier life in a place of natural, untouched beauty appeals. We've always had those folks. Some of them find life is harder than they expected; some thrive.
  - maxerickson 5y ago
    There has always been new opportunity at frontiers. Mars is just harsher than anywhere on earth. There's less of everything other than space and harmful radiation (and you sort of have to make the space that you want/need when you get there...)
signatoremo 5y ago
> I'm positively certain that in all of your examples people have pushed into new areas because of food, to find new land to live on, to find riches, to find the promised land or other mythological reasons First of all, you can’t be positively certain of those. We don’t have access to the reasoning of why the Vikings decided to cross the Artic to America, or Polynesians crossing the Pacific. Second of all, let’s say they did go to look for food. Are you sure they ran out of land to grow food, or forest for hunting that they had to look for new land? The answer is quite resounding no. Likewise, we don’t have to exhaust all of the resource on Earth before exploring other planets. Finally, what were those mythological reasons you listed there, if not the desire of human being to explore?
- gambiting 5y ago
  >>Are you sure they ran out of land to grow food, or forest for hunting that they had to look for new land? The answer is quite resounding no. The answer is an absolute and resounding yes, because that's exactly what hunter gatherers do - they move with the herds and where the food is. This isn't just an educated guess, we know this because there are still hunter tribes on Earth right now which do exactly this. >>Finally, what were those mythological reasons you listed there, if not the desire of human being to explore? We have historical records of entire tribes moving purely due to religious reasons, either believing that land somewhere else is sacred, or that the land they are on currently is condemned. If you think your deity lives over the horizon, then you get on your boat and go in that direction. Yes ultimately it's a desire to explore, but it's not just because it's "cool".