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> What makes Mars so great for producing software that would cover the added expense of firing a programmer all the way there in a rocket? I'm not sure if you'
by adriand 14y ago
> What makes Mars so great for producing software that would cover the added expense of firing a programmer all the way there in a rocket?
I'm not sure if you're asking this question rhetorically or not, but one answer might be that you wouldn't have nearly as many distractions as on earth. No commuting, no Starbucks, no phone calls (from earth, anyway), no going for a walk or a bike ride, no going to the beach - you get the idea. In fact, spending a lot of time working in some kind of virtual, computerized environment might be the only way to keep from going nuts up there.
What's sort of interesting, though, about being on Mars when it comes to an economy is that exporting stuff to Earth might be somewhat questionable. With the exception of digital goods like software and entertainment, the only stuff worth buying on Earth is stuff that can be transported to you, and that would be so costly that your exports better be extremely valuable. While on Mars, if I wrote a program and sold it to you on Earth for $1 million, what good is that $1 million to me?
So other than basic bartering among your fellow settlers, I imagine that you'd probably spend most of your time just trying to survive on Mars itself, without exporting much of anything at all. You also can't trade with the native populations, since there aren't any, which is another major departure from most earthbound settlements.
I think any attempt to settle on Mars would experience many of the same sort of risks that ultimately doomed the Norse settlement of Greenland between AD 985 to approx 1500.
- codeulike 14y ago* imagines trying to push to github from mars
- lutze 14y agoIsn't being a basement dwelling shut in already a nerd trope? No need to go to Mars for that, heh.
- cryptoz 14y agoThe whole concept here is that we have hundreds of thousands of people who desperately want to live on Mars. You don't seem to be getting that in this comment thread. YES, we know it's cheaper to live on Earth. We. Don't. Care. We want to live on Mars. We will give anything to go live on Mars. It'll cost more. Yes. It'll be tougher. Yes. We. Don't. Care. We want to live on Mars.
- shanelja 14y agoI don't want to live there, but I sure as hell would love to spend some time there, how many people for the next 50 years will be able to say they have been to Mars? I want to be one of the lucky ones.
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- stcredzero 14y ago> With the exception of digital goods like software and entertainment, the only stuff worth buying on Earth is stuff that can be transported to you, and that would be so costly that your exports better be extremely valuable. While on Mars, if I wrote a program and sold it to you on Earth for $1 million, what good is that $1 million to me? You have to consider this in the context of a solar system wide civilization. It's going to be a whole lot cheaper to ship things to and from Mars than from Earth. Orbital mechanics, Martian mineral resources, and the favorability of Mars for large scale agriculture will make it the hub of the solar-system's civilization. Settling Mars won't be like settling Greenland. It will be like establishing colonies in Massachusetts and Virginia. Eventually, the civilization-state of China and the western powers will realize this, and they will pay handsomely anyone who helps with their colonization projects.
- njharman 14y ago> wouldn't have nearly as many distractions I was going to explain how this is wildly wrong, but you do it yourself a little later. > you'd probably spend most of your time just trying to survive on Mars Death being a larger distraction than all the Starbucks combined.