4 ms·

Tectonics isn’t the issue There would be little point in terraforming Mars. There’s plenty of places on Earth to terraform

dismalaf 1y ago
The whole point of Mars (or any other second planet) is redundancy. If something happens to earth we have a backup plan, as a species.
- fuzztester 1y ago
  >The whole point of Mars (or any other second planet) is redundancy. No. It's some combination of cowardice, greed and ego, by those involved. You can bet your ass those guys are not thinking about saving the species. Lol. Furthest thing from their minds. Solve the Earth's problems on Earth instead, no need to run off to Mars. That's just kicking the can down the road.
  - dismalaf 1y ago
    > those guys Who do you think are "those guys"? Talking Musk? NASA? All the people who have dreamt of traveling the stars the last 100 years? Remember, we landed on the moon before Elon Musk was born. He's also not the first to talk about landing or living on Mars. And it's not to hedge against us destroying the planet. It's to hedge against an asteroid or other occurrence we can't control.
    - ngcazz 1y ago
      Musk has a proven track record of using govt subsidies to fund companies to enrich himself immeasurably, and his Nazi turn proves that personal enrichment, not technological advancement, is what is at stake. I don't mean to be preachy but anyone who is providing support for the most racist and perfidious elements of society in Germany and the UK should be disavowed in the strongest terms.
      - dismalaf 1y ago
        Wow Musk really lives rent free in your head eh? My comment literally about the fact that space travel predates Musk's ambitions by generations, and y'all just double down... Fun fact, the first person to mention colonising other planets is John Wilkens in the 17th century. I'm sure you'll find a way to connect that to Musk though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  There isn't anything that can happen to Earth that would make it worse than Mars.
pizzathyme 1y ago
Agree. But my understanding is the main idea is Mars is supposed to be a "backup" for humanity in the event of a very-low-probability catastrophic event on earth (total nuclear war, solar flare, meteorite collision). In our lifetimes, unlikely. Over the next 1 million years? Maybe.
- noir_lord 1y ago
  I’m of the opinion we’ll just do massive structures in space, lifting out of a gravity well just doesn’t make sense, if you can manufacture in space and we know there is a tonne of resources off plant in the solar system I don’t see why terraforming a plant is the smart play.
  - tehjoker 1y ago
    I believe the TV show "The 100" experimented with this idea. The inhabitants of the orbiting colonies wait out the contamination of Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series)
  - BurningFrog 1y ago
    That makes sense, but it can easily take a century to get that production ready. Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing to start prepping Mars colonization in a few years. I know, Elon's timelines always break. But his insane goals are also always reached after considerable delays.
    - collingreen 1y ago
      My cat always comes when it's called. Not right away though.
- danielheath 1y ago
  AFAIK - of those, collision is the only one which could plausibly make earth less habitable than a substantially terraformed mars.
tomxor 1y ago
> There’s plenty of places on Earth to terraform I'm going to steal this.
Lerc 1y ago
Are there? Most places on earth have an established environment. There are things living in some very hostile to human areas.
- kulahan 1y ago
  Yeah I don't think we could terraform large pieces of Earth without throwing a very serious wrench into things. The Sahara fertilizes the Amazon, right? So even a nearly lifeless desert isn't acceptable. Maybe the poles?
dotnet00 1y ago
If we fuck up terraforming Mars, it's bad, but not ecological collapse level bad. On the other hand, we're already fucking up terraforming Earth.
ozb 1y ago
Heh, apparently ChatGPT gets touchy when you explore creative ways to make earth less inhabitable than Mars, especially around pathogens and grey goo > content removed > <red> This content may violate our terms of use or usage policies

dismalaf 1y ago

The whole point of Mars (or any other second planet) is redundancy. If something happens to earth we have a backup plan, as a species.

fuzztester 1y ago
>The whole point of Mars (or any other second planet) is redundancy. No. It's some combination of cowardice, greed and ego, by those involved. You can bet your ass those guys are not thinking about saving the species. Lol. Furthest thing from their minds. Solve the Earth's problems on Earth instead, no need to run off to Mars. That's just kicking the can down the road.
- dismalaf 1y ago
  > those guys Who do you think are "those guys"? Talking Musk? NASA? All the people who have dreamt of traveling the stars the last 100 years? Remember, we landed on the moon before Elon Musk was born. He's also not the first to talk about landing or living on Mars. And it's not to hedge against us destroying the planet. It's to hedge against an asteroid or other occurrence we can't control.
  - ngcazz 1y ago
    Musk has a proven track record of using govt subsidies to fund companies to enrich himself immeasurably, and his Nazi turn proves that personal enrichment, not technological advancement, is what is at stake. I don't mean to be preachy but anyone who is providing support for the most racist and perfidious elements of society in Germany and the UK should be disavowed in the strongest terms.
    - dismalaf 1y ago
      Wow Musk really lives rent free in your head eh? My comment literally about the fact that space travel predates Musk's ambitions by generations, and y'all just double down... Fun fact, the first person to mention colonising other planets is John Wilkens in the 17th century. I'm sure you'll find a way to connect that to Musk though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization
thaumasiotes 1y ago
There isn't anything that can happen to Earth that would make it worse than Mars.

pizzathyme 1y ago

Agree. But my understanding is the main idea is Mars is supposed to be a "backup" for humanity in the event of a very-low-probability catastrophic event on earth (total nuclear war, solar flare, meteorite collision). In our lifetimes, unlikely. Over the next 1 million years? Maybe.

noir_lord 1y ago
I’m of the opinion we’ll just do massive structures in space, lifting out of a gravity well just doesn’t make sense, if you can manufacture in space and we know there is a tonne of resources off plant in the solar system I don’t see why terraforming a plant is the smart play.
- tehjoker 1y ago
  I believe the TV show "The 100" experimented with this idea. The inhabitants of the orbiting colonies wait out the contamination of Earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_(TV_series)
- BurningFrog 1y ago
  That makes sense, but it can easily take a century to get that production ready. Meanwhile, SpaceX is preparing to start prepping Mars colonization in a few years. I know, Elon's timelines always break. But his insane goals are also always reached after considerable delays.
  - collingreen 1y ago
    My cat always comes when it's called. Not right away though.
danielheath 1y ago
AFAIK - of those, collision is the only one which could plausibly make earth less habitable than a substantially terraformed mars.

tomxor 1y ago

> There’s plenty of places on Earth to terraform I'm going to steal this.

Lerc 1y ago

Are there? Most places on earth have an established environment. There are things living in some very hostile to human areas.

kulahan 1y ago
Yeah I don't think we could terraform large pieces of Earth without throwing a very serious wrench into things. The Sahara fertilizes the Amazon, right? So even a nearly lifeless desert isn't acceptable. Maybe the poles?

dotnet00 1y ago

If we fuck up terraforming Mars, it's bad, but not ecological collapse level bad. On the other hand, we're already fucking up terraforming Earth.

ozb 1y ago

Heh, apparently ChatGPT gets touchy when you explore creative ways to make earth less inhabitable than Mars, especially around pathogens and grey goo > content removed > <red> This content may violate our terms of use or usage policies