Schrödinger's PratSep 11, 2024

The student approached the Master and said "He wants to put a million people on Mars by 2040! That's so amazing!"

The Master replied. "I have a better plan. I will put a million people on Antarctica by 2040."

"But that sounds fucking insane. Why would you want to do something that stupid? It's a barren wasteland that's difficult to populate and would provide us with absolutely nothing!"

At that moment, the student was enlightened.

Show thread[email protected]Sep 11, 2024
@Rhodium103 That's what I've been wondering about, too.
While it may make sense to have autonomous human colonies on other planets in case of an impact, earth still seems an easier place to live on even after that because it has proper gravity, atmospheric pressure and lots of water.
I'm wondering what it would take to make earth less attractive than mars.
Show threadMichael BuschSep 13, 2024

@chris @Rhodium103 We have the technology to stop asteroids from impacting Earth.

Also, Mars gets hit by asteroids too (even more so than Earth does).

I have lost patience for people using the impact hazard as a pretext for imaginary space colonization.

Show thread[email protected]Sep 13, 2024
@michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 We may have some of the technology to deflect asteroids we detect but we don’t have a system.
It’s unlikely that Mars and Earth are hit by civilization ending events at the same time, so there’s a point in the idea of mankind putting their eggs into multiple baskets.
But one of the baskets is a wooden stick in the distance and the other basket is burning. We don’t extinguish it because we can build so many baskets in the future.
Show threadMichael BuschSep 13, 2024

@chris @Rhodium103 It has now been 2 years since the #DARTMission demonstrated asteroid deflection: https://dart.jhuapl.edu/ , and the follow-up #HeraMission is being packed up at Canaveral right now to launch next month (there is also an independent CNSA asteroid deflection demonstration).

And no asteroids larger than 1 km that can impact Earth in the next several hundred years. There is one potential impact in 2880 that cannot yet quite be ruled out.

The impact hazard is being addressed.

DART

NASA's First Planetary Defense Test Mission

Show thread[email protected]Sep 13, 2024
@michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 From a scientific perspective you are right (of course, your turf), that is reassuring, but we don't have the technology **in place** and what I've seen in the last decade politically makes me expect a 'don't look up' scenario if we need it.
But then, we definitely don't have the tech and motivation for an autonomous mars colony to reseed the planet, either. Not at all by far. We don't even put enough effort into saving this basket, which is a lot easier and closer.
Show thread[email protected]Sep 13, 2024

@michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 Maybe curiosity and science are the only plausible reasons for mankind to go to space.
But that will give us no autonomous colonies we dream about in a lot of science fiction.

I'm realizing the pain a lot of speculative fiction about IT gives to me, what SciFi located in space do you personally enjoy?

Show threadBarry Schwartz 🫖Sep 13, 2024

@chris @michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 The worst thing about the asteroid impact scenario has nothing to do with the feasibility of a Mars colony. It is that suggesting saving the category "human species" matters is what matters is a DEPRAVED point of view.

The "human species" is not a living thing. It is a BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE, "Homo sapiens". It is WORDS. What happens to it DOES NOT MATTER.

What MATTERS is the lives of ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS. THAT is what asteroid deflection saves.

Show thread[email protected]Sep 13, 2024
@chemoelectric @michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 Thanks for adding this perspective. I just found myself missing out on individual human fate and just speculating about saving the species.
This lack is not a way to a livable society, wherever, it is a dystopian horror.
Show threadBarry Schwartz 🫖
@chris @michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 There is the classic movie "When Worlds Collide", in which supposedly the "best" people survive to represent the species. Leaving out their innocent children, I myself consider them the worst monsters. They are horrible people. They are like the guy who says besmirching HIS name will harm the community.
Sep 13, 2024 at 7:53pmWeb
Show threadChaucerburntJan 7, 2025
@chemoelectric @chris @michael_w_busch @Rhodium103 That kind of thing always makes me think of the Golgafrinchan "A" ark and what happened to those people.
Show threadBarry Schwartz 🫖Jan 8, 2025
@chaucerburnt It serves them right.