4 ms·

> To most people, we wouldn't be ruining anything ecologically important or otherwise sacred by colonising it and bending it to our needs. I would 100% disagre

by cmdli 4y ago

> To most people, we wouldn't be ruining anything ecologically important or otherwise sacred by colonising it and bending it to our needs. I would 100% disagree with that. If you explained to people that Mars was a habitat untouched by humanity, possibly filled with life, most people would absolutely be against anything that would ruin it. People value preserving nature because they find it beautiful, not because they find it useful.

titzer 4y ago
> most people would absolutely be against anything that would ruin it Until there's a dollar to be made exploiting it.
adastra22 4y ago
What's the point if no one is allowed to visit?
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  The point is to not kill everything there. So that, one, it gets to live to become whatever it's going to be, and two, it's still there for us to visit if we can ever figure out how to do so without killing it.
- tayo42 4y ago
  You learn first how to responsibly visit.
- Dalewyn 4y ago
  To preserve environments as they exist without (further) human interventions. There are plenty of examples of that right here on Earth, let alone outer space. Personally, part of me hopes humanity never figures out how to get away from Earth and spread to other planets. An untouched rest of the universe seems far more valuable than one tainted with humans, at least to this particular jaded homo sapien.
  - spiderice 4y ago
    > An untouched rest of the universe seems far more valuable than one tainted with humans This seems like a silly worry given the rate of expansion of the universe. We couldn't "taint" the universe even if we wanted to. At least nothing outside of our galaxy (but more likely outside of just our solar system). The universe is essentially infinite. With essentially infinite planets, moons, stars, solar systems, and galaxies. Humans are unique (until proven otherwise). I say let the humans have their fun in their 0.000000000000000001% of the universe. In both best and worst case scenarios, there is still plenty of "untainted" universe left.
  - ericd 4y ago
    There are an estimated 10^22 to 10^24 stars, or in the many sextillions range. So really, don't worry, we wouldn't have the capability to taint any significant amount of the universe even if that was our sole purpose.
    - m4rtink 4y ago
      Well, exponential growth (and Von Neuman Probes!) can get fun quite quickly. ;-)
      - adastra22 4y ago
        Inflation puts to rest any ideas about that. Most of the observable universe is outside our future light-cone.
- fathyb 4y ago
  We can conserve it, study it, and make replicas for misbehaving tourists. See Lascaux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
- fleddr 4y ago
  The point of what? You think there's no point to life if you can't visit it?

by cmdli 4y ago

titzer 4y ago

> most people would absolutely be against anything that would ruin it Until there's a dollar to be made exploiting it.

adastra22 4y ago

What's the point if no one is allowed to visit?

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
The point is to not kill everything there. So that, one, it gets to live to become whatever it's going to be, and two, it's still there for us to visit if we can ever figure out how to do so without killing it.
tayo42 4y ago
You learn first how to responsibly visit.
Dalewyn 4y ago
To preserve environments as they exist without (further) human interventions. There are plenty of examples of that right here on Earth, let alone outer space. Personally, part of me hopes humanity never figures out how to get away from Earth and spread to other planets. An untouched rest of the universe seems far more valuable than one tainted with humans, at least to this particular jaded homo sapien.
- spiderice 4y ago
  > An untouched rest of the universe seems far more valuable than one tainted with humans This seems like a silly worry given the rate of expansion of the universe. We couldn't "taint" the universe even if we wanted to. At least nothing outside of our galaxy (but more likely outside of just our solar system). The universe is essentially infinite. With essentially infinite planets, moons, stars, solar systems, and galaxies. Humans are unique (until proven otherwise). I say let the humans have their fun in their 0.000000000000000001% of the universe. In both best and worst case scenarios, there is still plenty of "untainted" universe left.
- ericd 4y ago
  There are an estimated 10^22 to 10^24 stars, or in the many sextillions range. So really, don't worry, we wouldn't have the capability to taint any significant amount of the universe even if that was our sole purpose.
  - m4rtink 4y ago
    Well, exponential growth (and Von Neuman Probes!) can get fun quite quickly. ;-)
    - adastra22 4y ago
      Inflation puts to rest any ideas about that. Most of the observable universe is outside our future light-cone.
fathyb 4y ago
We can conserve it, study it, and make replicas for misbehaving tourists. See Lascaux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
fleddr 4y ago
The point of what? You think there's no point to life if you can't visit it?