4 ms·

Mars is a horrible place to live so I'll take Earth any day. But it would be nice if humanity doesn't get wiped out if we get unlucky with an asteroid.

KennyBlanken 3y ago
In the meantime, we're already well into ecological collapse (I think we've lost something like 3/4s of the earth's species?) and existential-threat-level climate change which in fifty years or so will be so bad we'll be dealing with near constant humanitarian crises...with no sign of improvement on either front. Decarbonization isn't happening nearly fast enough and industrial pollution is chugging along. Frankly, I don't see human society surviving long enough - or perhaps better put, maintaining a necessary level of societal development - for us to develop the tech to establish a self-sufficient colony capable of independent growth and to get us to a planet with the resources to make such a thing possible. It's hard to make rocket parts when everyone is living in shacks made of sticks and mud and leaves.
- chpatrick 3y ago
  I don't think it has to be either-or. We can work on saving Earth while also trying to travel to other planets.
- scarygliders 3y ago
  Hang on. You said you were living in a minivan - a vehicle which took a few technological leaps to be able to develop and build, so you could live in it. You also appear to have an internet connection and a means to use it. Again, technological leaps were required for you to be able to whine on HN. Perhaps - if you're so utterly sincere and serious about saving the planet as you appear to be - you should be living in the nearest available cave? After all, that minivan is likely to use an internal combustion engine and runs on dead dinosaurs; let alone the plastics and metals and silicon used in said minivan's assembly. See, this is what I don't get about eco-heros like you appear to be - even if you are homeless, you're still, right now, utilising every single technological leap that it took to get you to the stage of even just living in your minivan and complaining about rocket development on the internet. This, to me, reeks of hypocrisy.
microtherion 3y ago
The prospect for building a self sustaining colony on Mars in the foreseeable future is essentially zero. And even the largest disasters on earth are unlikely to kill quite everyone. So the most likely outcome of a metaphorical or literal asteroid hit on Earth is that it would still leave thousands, millions, or billions of survivors on Earth, while leaving it unable and/or unwilling to sustain maintenance missions to Mars, so the Mars colonists would starve or otherwise die slowly, despite being technically unaffected by the original disaster.

KennyBlanken 3y ago

In the meantime, we're already well into ecological collapse (I think we've lost something like 3/4s of the earth's species?) and existential-threat-level climate change which in fifty years or so will be so bad we'll be dealing with near constant humanitarian crises...with no sign of improvement on either front. Decarbonization isn't happening nearly fast enough and industrial pollution is chugging along. Frankly, I don't see human society surviving long enough - or perhaps better put, maintaining a necessary level of societal development - for us to develop the tech to establish a self-sufficient colony capable of independent growth and to get us to a planet with the resources to make such a thing possible. It's hard to make rocket parts when everyone is living in shacks made of sticks and mud and leaves.

chpatrick 3y ago
I don't think it has to be either-or. We can work on saving Earth while also trying to travel to other planets.
scarygliders 3y ago
Hang on. You said you were living in a minivan - a vehicle which took a few technological leaps to be able to develop and build, so you could live in it. You also appear to have an internet connection and a means to use it. Again, technological leaps were required for you to be able to whine on HN. Perhaps - if you're so utterly sincere and serious about saving the planet as you appear to be - you should be living in the nearest available cave? After all, that minivan is likely to use an internal combustion engine and runs on dead dinosaurs; let alone the plastics and metals and silicon used in said minivan's assembly. See, this is what I don't get about eco-heros like you appear to be - even if you are homeless, you're still, right now, utilising every single technological leap that it took to get you to the stage of even just living in your minivan and complaining about rocket development on the internet. This, to me, reeks of hypocrisy.

microtherion 3y ago

The prospect for building a self sustaining colony on Mars in the foreseeable future is essentially zero. And even the largest disasters on earth are unlikely to kill quite everyone. So the most likely outcome of a metaphorical or literal asteroid hit on Earth is that it would still leave thousands, millions, or billions of survivors on Earth, while leaving it unable and/or unwilling to sustain maintenance missions to Mars, so the Mars colonists would starve or otherwise die slowly, despite being technically unaffected by the original disaster.