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> What are we trying to find or learn that life from earth will permanently remove the chance of? Species prove to be invasive all the time on earth when expos
by eganist 3y ago
> What are we trying to find or learn that life from earth will permanently remove the chance of?
Species prove to be invasive all the time on earth when exposed to new ecosystems or environments, and usually that's at the expense of many potential discoveries about the life forms that are replaced.
Seeding the universe with life from our planet may make sense as a survival strategy, but there's no ceiling to the knowledge we can glean from life thats different from our own.
In short: we don't know what we don't know, and the gains from such knowledge could be endless.
- smusamashah 3y agoSo one of the things we are trying to learn is if there are other type of life forms than what we know from earth. What if do find something, there are no big size living things there but if did find some microbial Mars/X native life form, will we just let that be? Won't we still try to put ourselves there anyway? that's what we do on current planet being top of the food chain.
- throwup238 3y agoYeah the whole safety dance is a bit of a farce. Everyone is willing to play along with the ethical considerations now because there's currently zero value to the Moon and Mars but if we had the technology and industrial capacity to start sending thousands of colonists, those rules would probably be discarded with much haste.
- pests 3y agoSounds like AI alignment
- WalterBright 3y ago> will we just let that be? Why should we? Microbes are not sentient.
- 14u2c 3y agoThis is not about about some microbe conservation effort. The whole idea is to preserve the conditions in which life can be discovered, and if it is, studied. Think about how much harder it would be to detect Mars life if organic molecules from Earth are present in quantity, let alone the interaction that could occur.
- irrational 3y agoAt what point do we determine there is no more to be learned so terraforming efforts can start?
- EasyMark 3y agowe can't even terraform our own planet in a controlled, positive manner. It's gonna be a long time for mars.
- WalterBright 3y agoPerhaps we are the only life in the universe. It would be a pity to have the earth destroyed and that is all gone, because we were so terrified of spreading life around. > the gains from such knowledge could be endless. Could be - but the gains from spreading Terran life around will be endless. Besides, Mars is a lifeless hulk.
- deadbabe 3y agoIf life in the universe is actually really rare, isn’t it irresponsible for us to not be seeding life anywhere we can put it? If we put microbes on several planets and moons in the solar system those worlds could have complex and even intelligent lifeforms in millions of years.