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Exactly. Same argument applies for life extension, or any other radical change like that. Nobody forces you to follow in the wake of the pioneers. You can alwa

Exactly. Same argument applies for life extension, or any other radical change like that. Nobody forces you to follow in the wake of the pioneers. You can always just stay behind.

geuis 14y ago
You got it perfectly. I want to go for the experience and opportunity. But I also want to build something for the future. No one remembers the people that stay behind and live out their lives, but the names and deeds of the founders of Pensacola, St. Augustine, and Jamestown are taught and remembered. Another reason to settle other places in the solar system is that we can do so without guilt. In America, we have remember the atrocities commited during the building of the USA. On Mars, the moon, and anywhere else it's all fresh and no one is there. I don't have my own family yet, so the idea of literally building a new world where my kids and grandkids grow and thrive has a strong attraction too. Maybe they would hate that they were born on Mars with little or no chance of returning to Earth, but I have to hope that they see it as their world and their future.
- freehunter 14y ago
  When I went to sleep after the Curiosity landing, I had a dream that I was on Mars with a group of colonists. I "overheard" someone say "this is the first child born outside of Earth". Imagining someone who is a citizen (by virtue of their parents) of a country they've never seen, on a planet they've never visited... I woke up in wonderment that this is going to happen some day. I hope I'm around to see it.
  - geuis 14y ago
    I hope it's your kid or mine. That's a great, great dream.
- kayoone 14y ago
  Born on Mars? Come on, we MIGHT be able to put a man on the Mars in 15 years, colonizing it so that your kids can be born there is far away.
tsotha 14y ago
You're quite right. But in the past pioneers didn't expect me to pay for their adventures through taxation. I'm all for colonizing mars when we have the technology to do so, but we don't and we won't for hundreds of years. There's no reason to send people there now.
- Florin_Andrei 14y ago
  > But in the past pioneers didn't expect me to pay for their adventures through taxation. Last time I checked SpaceX was a private company, either profitable already, or on track to become so pretty soon. And even if you were talking about the NASA mission, I'm still all for it, no matter what Zombie Ayn Rand is mumbling in the basement.
  - tsotha 14y ago
    >Last time I checked SpaceX was a private company, either profitable already, or on track to become so pretty soon. SpaceX is a private company, sure, but so is Boeing. Much of the funding for their current activities comes from NASA. The easiest business in the world to be profitable in is government contracting. >And even if you were talking about the NASA mission, I'm still all for it, no matter what Zombie Ayn Rand is mumbling in the basement. Great. Why don't you pay for it then, and leave the rest of us out? There isn't any reason to send people to Mars, and the effort will cost over a trillion. It's hard to imagine a use for that money that wouldn't be more productive.

Exactly. Same argument applies for life extension, or any other radical change like that. Nobody forces you to follow in the wake of the pioneers. You can always just stay behind.

geuis 14y ago

You got it perfectly. I want to go for the experience and opportunity. But I also want to build something for the future. No one remembers the people that stay behind and live out their lives, but the names and deeds of the founders of Pensacola, St. Augustine, and Jamestown are taught and remembered. Another reason to settle other places in the solar system is that we can do so without guilt. In America, we have remember the atrocities commited during the building of the USA. On Mars, the moon, and anywhere else it's all fresh and no one is there. I don't have my own family yet, so the idea of literally building a new world where my kids and grandkids grow and thrive has a strong attraction too. Maybe they would hate that they were born on Mars with little or no chance of returning to Earth, but I have to hope that they see it as their world and their future.

freehunter 14y ago
When I went to sleep after the Curiosity landing, I had a dream that I was on Mars with a group of colonists. I "overheard" someone say "this is the first child born outside of Earth". Imagining someone who is a citizen (by virtue of their parents) of a country they've never seen, on a planet they've never visited... I woke up in wonderment that this is going to happen some day. I hope I'm around to see it.
- geuis 14y ago
  I hope it's your kid or mine. That's a great, great dream.
kayoone 14y ago
Born on Mars? Come on, we MIGHT be able to put a man on the Mars in 15 years, colonizing it so that your kids can be born there is far away.

tsotha 14y ago

You're quite right. But in the past pioneers didn't expect me to pay for their adventures through taxation. I'm all for colonizing mars when we have the technology to do so, but we don't and we won't for hundreds of years. There's no reason to send people there now.

Florin_Andrei 14y ago
> But in the past pioneers didn't expect me to pay for their adventures through taxation. Last time I checked SpaceX was a private company, either profitable already, or on track to become so pretty soon. And even if you were talking about the NASA mission, I'm still all for it, no matter what Zombie Ayn Rand is mumbling in the basement.
- tsotha 14y ago
  >Last time I checked SpaceX was a private company, either profitable already, or on track to become so pretty soon. SpaceX is a private company, sure, but so is Boeing. Much of the funding for their current activities comes from NASA. The easiest business in the world to be profitable in is government contracting. >And even if you were talking about the NASA mission, I'm still all for it, no matter what Zombie Ayn Rand is mumbling in the basement. Great. Why don't you pay for it then, and leave the rest of us out? There isn't any reason to send people to Mars, and the effort will cost over a trillion. It's hard to imagine a use for that money that wouldn't be more productive.