3 ms·

tbh I never really understood that conversation. TARS is a machine and if it's impossible from an advanced machine's standpoint, it's impossible from a physics

tbh I never really understood that conversation. TARS is a machine and if it's impossible from an advanced machine's standpoint, it's impossible from a physics standpoint. Cooper's maneuver was pretty simple that TARS should have been able to simulate and figure out. Regardless, I agree that being multi-planetary is absolutely a requirement for humanity. We are too risky here. And the risk is not from outside. Humanity has survived for 100s of millions of years without as asteroid annihilating us, and I don't see it changing now). The biggest risk to humanity is humanity. We will probably figure out a way to destroy ourselves, either with something much more powerful than nuclear bombs or some new unimaginable tech.

avz 4y ago
Single planetary system isn't much more of a protection than a single planet against some of the possible extinction events, e.g. ones associated with the activity of the Sun or intelligent aliens. > Humanity has survived for 100s of millions of years without as asteroid annihilating us, and I don't see it changing now). Homo sapiens is thought to have existed for mere 300,000 years. Our last common ancestor with the chimpanzee [1] existed no more than 13 million years ago. K-T extinction event [2] that wiped out dinosaurs happened 66 million years ago. There have been numerous extinction events before and after that [3]. On the timescales of species this planet isn't safe. At these timescales rare events become regular occurrences. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_e... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events

avz 4y ago

Single planetary system isn't much more of a protection than a single planet against some of the possible extinction events, e.g. ones associated with the activity of the Sun or intelligent aliens. > Humanity has survived for 100s of millions of years without as asteroid annihilating us, and I don't see it changing now). Homo sapiens is thought to have existed for mere 300,000 years. Our last common ancestor with the chimpanzee [1] existed no more than 13 million years ago. K-T extinction event [2] that wiped out dinosaurs happened 66 million years ago. There have been numerous extinction events before and after that [3]. On the timescales of species this planet isn't safe. At these timescales rare events become regular occurrences. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_common_ancestor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimpanzee%E2%80%93human_last_... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_e... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events