Zach WeinersmithBahaha, there was a thread on the Bird Site talking about A City on Mars. The usual ad hominem stuff, but for the first time a guy implied we were maybe being paid by China. For the record, of the Chinese government wishes to fund longterm research projects on space settlement science (A) they really need to work on their propaganda game (B) please direct them to my bank account at once
Dan Sugalski@ZachWeinersmith I am always a bit surprised exactly how worked up people get over what’s essentially the proposition “living on Mars is really hard, actually, and you wouldn’t like it much”
@wordshaper I had a couple people ask if we were being too defensive in some of the opening sections to which I would always say, oh just wait. They will come.
@wordshaper The thing I really don't get is why so many people insist we're being purposefully dishonest and making stuff up. Like, the word "polemic" gets used, even though we've had quite a few readers say we were too apologetic and too nice to the space billionaires!
@wordshaper The kindest interpretation to me is they think we're the equivalent of a caveman saying fire won't work, and being roundly praised by elderly shamans. So, they tend to see more than is actually present in the work, e.g. that we're opposed to human progress per se, or we think humans can't overcome challenges, etc.
@ZachWeinersmith I guess folks are *really* tied to the science fiction future they ran across when they were 12 and has been stuck in their heads as Truth ever since.
Which, fair, I get very sad every time I think about the stories I read as a kid and then do the math on exactly how much energy all that space travel needs. Still, the vitriol is unwarranted.
(Also, the book was awesome even if the big takeaways didn't match the shiny SF vision of the future my inner 12-year-old holds to)
Dave T-W@wordshaper @ZachWeinersmith The shame is, there's some really interesting research being done that's critical to any of these utopian visions. Sciences and engineering, obviously, but also "human" sciences" like architecture and anthropology. With the obsession with the rockets and handwavey "we'll figure it out or maybe die gloriously" that work gets overlooked. A shame as it's often very accessible and has applications beyond "Mars Base Alpha".
Cody@ZachWeinersmith @wordshaper maybe people don't like to be reminded, even in a roundabout way, how badly we've screwed our climate.
Jeff@ZachWeinersmith @wordshaper maybe they think you're in the pocket of Big Mars, and you're just pushing everyone else away, so that the billionaires can have it all to themselves. When you publish "A City on Venus" saying how great THAT will be, to convince everyone to go there instead, their suspicions will be confirmed.
Consider the foolproof logic illustrated in XKCD "Hotels"
https://xkcd.com/958/
@evilotto @ZachWeinersmith ...I am now tempted to start a rumor that Zach is a puppet of the Zeta Reticulans (they're the lizard people with a base under the Denver airport, right? Something like that) to discourage Mars exploration and the discovery of their Secret Base there.
The only thing stopping me, besides laziness, is the depressing knowledge that enough people would take it seriously that the results would be unfortunate.