3 ms·

Discovering the New World certainly propelled Europeans to wealth, what with looting silver from Peru, the Atlantic slave trade, opening the Mississippi river

by vorg 14y ago

Discovering the New World certainly propelled Europeans to wealth, what with looting silver from Peru, the Atlantic slave trade, opening the Mississippi river basin, the US taking control of the ocean's chokepoints in WW2. But it's hard to see how colonizing Mars will help "the Chinese government". A better move for advancing "Chinese civilization" would be to encourage Chinese people to immigrate to other nations, such as the US, Australia, South Africa, Chile, rather than Mars or the Moon. But that's already happening... from 1990 to 2010, the ethnic Chinese population of the USA rose from 1 million to 3m, now 1% of Americans. It's already 5% of Canada, and 3% of Australia. Many individual regions and cities around the world have much higher percentages, e.g. Northern California, Vancouver. The diasporas of Singapore, Malaysia, and elsewhere in S.E.Asia advance Chinese civilization, but not the Chinese government much.

stcredzero 14y ago
> Discovering the New World certainly propelled Europeans to wealth, what with looting silver from Peru, the Atlantic slave trade, opening the Mississippi river basin, the US taking control of the ocean's chokepoints in WW2. But it's hard to see how colonizing Mars will help "the Chinese government". Do you think any of those things were easy to see for Europeans before the fact? Colonizing Mars probably won't directly help the Chinese Government. I never said that it would; you are putting words in my mouth here. However, colonizing Mars would certainly help Chinese Civilization gain ascendancy in a pan-solar civilization. Mars will probably become the economic center of such a solar-system spanning civilization. One can grow crops there. (A workable amount of insolation in a 24 hour cycle.) There are resources there that can support many industrial processes we already base our civilization on. The gravity is low enough that getting from the surface of Mars to Orbit won't stretch the bounds of a materials technology based on molecular bonds. (Whereas the gravity well of Earth is just large enough to make this really obnoxious.) Given these and other factors, Mars will be well positioned as the largest population center, and largest agricultural and industrial power other than Earth. At the same time, it will be several times more accessible than Earth for most of the solar system.
- vorg 14y ago
  You're thinking much further ahead than me. > colonizing Mars would certainly help Chinese Civilization gain ascendancy in a pan-solar civilization. Different presently-recogized civilizations, such as Western, Muslim, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, will be indistinguishable by the time a pan-solar civilization arises. > Mars will be well positioned as the largest population center, and largest agricultural and industrial power other than Earth I believe people who grow up in one gravity zone can live for a long time in a weaker gravity zone, but can't adapt at all to a stronger gravity. People born on Earth could move to Mars to live, but people born on Mars couldn't live on Earth. If true, that gives support to your argument. But perhaps Titan or some asteroid would also become a large industrial power.
  - stcredzero 14y ago
    > Different presently-recogized civilizations, such as Western, Muslim, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, will be indistinguishable by the time a pan-solar civilization arises. I very much doubt it. We will have distances where lightspeed comms are delayed by minutes or hours. It will take longer than a century for the differences to dissolve, and there will be enough accelerated cultural change to produce more differences with more distance to preserve them. The economics of agriculture combined with the smaller gravity well will ensure Mars has the highest population. I agree that Titan, with local access to the energy wealth of Saturn, may well be a major power also.

by vorg 14y ago

stcredzero 14y ago

> Discovering the New World certainly propelled Europeans to wealth, what with looting silver from Peru, the Atlantic slave trade, opening the Mississippi river basin, the US taking control of the ocean's chokepoints in WW2. But it's hard to see how colonizing Mars will help "the Chinese government". Do you think any of those things were easy to see for Europeans before the fact? Colonizing Mars probably won't directly help the Chinese Government. I never said that it would; you are putting words in my mouth here. However, colonizing Mars would certainly help Chinese Civilization gain ascendancy in a pan-solar civilization. Mars will probably become the economic center of such a solar-system spanning civilization. One can grow crops there. (A workable amount of insolation in a 24 hour cycle.) There are resources there that can support many industrial processes we already base our civilization on. The gravity is low enough that getting from the surface of Mars to Orbit won't stretch the bounds of a materials technology based on molecular bonds. (Whereas the gravity well of Earth is just large enough to make this really obnoxious.) Given these and other factors, Mars will be well positioned as the largest population center, and largest agricultural and industrial power other than Earth. At the same time, it will be several times more accessible than Earth for most of the solar system.

vorg 14y ago
You're thinking much further ahead than me. > colonizing Mars would certainly help Chinese Civilization gain ascendancy in a pan-solar civilization. Different presently-recogized civilizations, such as Western, Muslim, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, will be indistinguishable by the time a pan-solar civilization arises. > Mars will be well positioned as the largest population center, and largest agricultural and industrial power other than Earth I believe people who grow up in one gravity zone can live for a long time in a weaker gravity zone, but can't adapt at all to a stronger gravity. People born on Earth could move to Mars to live, but people born on Mars couldn't live on Earth. If true, that gives support to your argument. But perhaps Titan or some asteroid would also become a large industrial power.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  > Different presently-recogized civilizations, such as Western, Muslim, Indian, and Chinese civilizations, will be indistinguishable by the time a pan-solar civilization arises. I very much doubt it. We will have distances where lightspeed comms are delayed by minutes or hours. It will take longer than a century for the differences to dissolve, and there will be enough accelerated cultural change to produce more differences with more distance to preserve them. The economics of agriculture combined with the smaller gravity well will ensure Mars has the highest population. I agree that Titan, with local access to the energy wealth of Saturn, may well be a major power also.