I agree we're many decades out from earnestly colonizing Mars. We'll have to get much wealthier, where "wealth" = new innovations in human wellbeing *and* reduced scarcity of those we have. But: the light bulb is <150 years old. There are people alive today born before penicillinhttps://twitter.com/KevinSimler/status/1142923685809938432 …
-
Show this thread
-
Replying to @webdevMason
This is a project that is exactly as many decades away as we want it to be.
4 replies 4 retweets 47 likes -
Replying to @DavidDeutschOxf @webdevMason
When/how would living on Mars ever be anything but a net drain on energy/money from Earth? Mars isn't full of energy sources, because it hasn't had life forms that spent hundreds of millions of years capturing and storing the Sun's energy.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
Replying to @stuartbuck1 @webdevMason
Mars has no knowledge sources. Yet. Knowledge/wealth/civilisation aren't produced by energy sources, but vice versa.
1 reply 5 retweets 24 likes -
Replying to @DavidDeutschOxf @webdevMason
Seems mutual. It took knowledge to exploit coal, oil, etc., but greater energy usage created an explosion of wealth/knowledge (I.e., people could specialize in knowledge rather than having to farm/hunt by hand, which is energy-inefficient.)
3 replies 0 retweets 1 like -
Easy low gravity is an absolutely gigantic benefit for Mars, the Moon, and space in general. The challenges of living there will (a) cost a huge amount in the short term; and (b) produce trillion dollar industries over the long term.
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes -
Replying to @michael_nielsen @stuartbuck1 and
Do I know this to be true? No. But that's why it's exploration, not betting on certainties. Unknown unknowns dominate. My guess is that betting on Mars is a 100x bet... with a significant probability of 0x outcome.
3 replies 1 retweet 5 likes -
Replying to @michael_nielsen @stuartbuck1 and
Just one example: think about the challenges for chemists & synthetic biologies & materials scientists on Mars. They're going to be asked - indeed it will be imperative - to solve a whole lot of problems they would never have been asked to solve on Earth.
3 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
Most of these things will produce niche industries, useful on Mars but nowhere else. But it seems highly likely to me that some will turn into incredible drivers of Earth's economy.
-
-
Also, the pioneers will be volunteers. Going there *for reasons*. 'What use is a newborn culture?' Infinite.
3 replies 3 retweets 12 likes - 2 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.