Long-termism and effective altruism are labels that are on the surface attractive, or at worst benign if wrong-headed. But in many instances they are destructiv

Long-termism and effective altruism are labels that are on the surface attractive, or at worst benign if wrong-headed. But in many instances they are destructive: telling people Mars can be colonized by humans, and that being "multiplanetary" is sensible diverts attention from duller but vastly more pressing issues. The real answer to colonizing Mars is something a lot of people would find disturbing: A species of post-human beings would have to be engineered for the role of colonist. That's just for starters. But the scifi version is what gets sold to the public.