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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#541

Post by Klathmon »

eloisius wrote: post #499
Grishnakh wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In some ways HN is designed to combat this. Yeah, those things are an example of something that sounds great in theory, but doesn't work out in practice.

I wonder if recent UI enhancements really improve the discussion, or if they are just indicators that we've reached that critical threshold. I don't remember wanting for collapsable threads and such four or five years ago, but now I can't imagine sifting through all the junk without them.

Personally I really like that change because it helps keep one thread from derailing a whole submission.

But I also feel like my karma goes up faster now too, but that could just be in my head.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#542

Post by JabavuAdams »

I love the "questions, not essays" shut-down. It's not rude, but it quashes this tendency people have to try and impress rather than to ask a question.

Next time I'm giving a talk: one question per person (want to ask more, go to end of line), and ask your damn question.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#543

Post by JabavuAdams »

ythl wrote: post #334
brey wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a phrase I'm fond of: The man who says it can't be done needs to get out of the way of the man who's doing it.

At least in my case, I see trying to start a Mars colony as a death trap. It's the illusion of carrying on the human race, but it's really just dooming a bunch of pioneers to a grim fate in an extremely hostile environment. I think making a south pole colony would be hard enough, let alone a Mars one.

Sounds great, let's try that. We're all doomed to death, anyway. Clearly we're not all doomed for greatness.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#544

Post by XJOKOLAT »

davidw wrote: post #257

Jeez, they should have done some vetting of the people asking questions. Some of these are horrible and a waste of time.

Have to admit, I laughed my ass off at:

"Hey Elon, I've got my electric bus parked outside. Want to take a look?"

Elon/team deserved much better.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#545

Post by dguest »

ythl wrote: post #334
brey wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a phrase I'm fond of: The man who says it can't be done needs to get out of the way of the man who's doing it.

At least in my case, I see trying to start a Mars colony as a death trap. It's the illusion of carrying on the human race, but it's really just dooming a bunch of pioneers to a grim fate in an extremely hostile environment. I think making a south pole colony would be hard enough, let alone a Mars one.

You say a south pole colony would be hard enough as though we don't have one. We have a south pole colony [0], and there are a half dozen multi-million dollar experiments there that must be manned year round.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen–Scott_South_Pole_Stat...

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#546

Post by JabavuAdams »

ythl wrote: post #382
Osiris wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should your opinion dictate what other people try to accomplish?

I'm not saying "don't try", I'm just saying "I think what you are attempting is foolish and that you are just going to kill a bunch of people", that's all. I can express an opinion about a potentially deadly venture, can't I?

A lot of large engineering projects have killed a bunch of people before succeeding. It's fine, as long as the people accept the risk, and aren't deceived.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#547

Post by JabavuAdams »

mintplant wrote: post #258
mikeash wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're free to advocate for other things, but most of the critics aren't doing this, they're just shitting all over this idea and then making vague waves in the general direction of other ideas. Further, why so much focus on this particular billionaire, who at least is focusing pretty hard on driving progress even if you don't agree on the precise direction, and ignoring all the ones just wasting it, or being activel…

> Further, why so much focus on this particular billionaire, Personally, I'm worried by the fact that it's a billionaire driving this, nevermind which one in particular. If and when SpaceX colonizes Mars, what sort of life will the people up there live? Will it be a Musk dictatorship? A corporate fiefdom? Rich people remaking society in their own image wasn't exactly the space dream I grew up with.

Any of these is possible, but the character of the founders really does matter.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#548

Post by sabertoothed »

dudus wrote: post #277

Watching live the announcement and presentation by Elon on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YxNYiyALg Where the hell did they get this audience from? Is this hosted on a frat house with some academic invites? There's a dude jokingly saying that burning man felt like mars with a lot of shit and no water, there's a guy plugging his comic book, there's a guy making a joke on how we should send Michael Cera to Mars, a g…

You're so right. I had to stop watching after they started the Q&A. That was impossible to watch without self-harming.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#549

Post by JabavuAdams »

davidw wrote: post #6

This is so pleasant to see after being bombarded with US presidential politics. Science, hope and progress!

I have big problems with US foreign policy and the treatment of blacks. But stuff like this makes me want to move to LA and work at SpaceX. I guess I'd essentially be living at work, so ...

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#550

Post by schoen »

tomrod wrote: post #458
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any time any single person does something positive, some armchair "expert" comes out the woodworks to tell you how it won't work or can't work. All public forums go bad once they reach a certain size. Since everything is on a gaussian curve (fat mediocre middle, and two asymptotes, one for greatness, the other for the opposite end), it's just pure statistics that junk comments will start creeping in once the popula…

Pedantic point: not everything is Gaussian. Income, for example, doesn't go below zero. It may not even be log-normal, but rather a power distribution. Pedantic point aside, you bring up an important point. Can behavioral incentives be aligned to avoid the bottom side of participation?

If you measure income as change in net worth minus expenditures, it could go below zero. That might not be an appropriate definition in all cases, but, for example if you incur debts without acquiring an offsetting benefit (maybe by being compelled to pay damages to someone for something you did that you didn't derive much or any value from, like causing an accident?), it might be reasonable to say that you had negative income. Or maybe due to capital losses -- you own something that gets stolen or destroyed or damaged, or whose market value falls a lot.

(That doesn't mean that it will follow a Gaussian distribution, just that it could be defined in a way where it makes sense that it can sometimes be negative.)

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