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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#741

Post by michaelchisari »

nhance wrote: post #599
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you prefer? Rolling applause for every idea anyone presents? One benefit of criticism is we might get to read an angle of attack we hadn't thought of and thereby improve our ideas and designs. Sure, when people blow off an idea by saying "pointless, let's save the baby dolphins first" I don't find those comments helpful, but HN almost always has far more in-depth critiques. Edit: fixed a word

And the negative comments help wipe out a great bit of future competition. If you kill an idea before it gets started, you reduce the risk of it actually working. Here to the crazy ones.

I encourage people to not say, "This won't work, and here's why."

I encourage people to say, "This won't work, here's why, but here's how it could."

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#742

Post by intrasight »

grecy wrote: post #268
bsdetector wrote: post #47

We won't really be an interplanetary species until we can get back from Mars. Imagine being colonists on Mars without the ability to be totally self-sustaining without technology and supplies from Earth and nuclear war breaks out. It's going to be a long time before any Mars colony can survive on its own.

Musk just answered a question that said you can come back if you want to. "The spaceship is coming back anyway, you can get on if you want. Free"

And if the company goes belly-up while you're there?

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#743

Post by intrasight »

giarc wrote: post #679
microtherion wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since his "position" involves advocating for a whole bunch of literal and figurative moon shots, investing in public speaking skills is a HIGHLY efficient use of his time.

And yet there are two companies that live stream product launches and get lots of media attention. Apple and Tesla/SpaceX. So I would say his public speaking skills don't matter to the crowd of engineers and geeks. Maybe, just maybe the product speaks louder than the words?

I totally agree. The first couple of times I heard him speak, I was like "get some skills". But now I can filter out the stutters and delays. And the payoff is huge - the guy is totally brilliant and inspirational. I can see why his employees give it 150%.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#744

Post by kybernetikos »

mzw_mzw wrote: post #561
mintplant wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

There's a weird sort of fear of potential corporate dystopias that just ignores all the actual government dystopias that have existed throughout history. Plenty of government colonies were dictatorships, fiefdoms, attempts at building bizarre and broken societies. Many people reading this live in nations that originated in exactly that fashion.

> ignores all the actual government dystopias that have existed throughout history

I think my fear of potential corporate dystopias is informed by my knowledge of actual government dystopias.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#745

Post by imron »

JBReefer wrote: post #659
erikpukinskis wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a pretty high probability that such a migration would be accompanied by quite a lot of genocide and war.

What, NYC vs Rockland county? That wouldn't be a genocide, it would be a zoning argument. Same as Miami vs Georgia. If waves lap up against my place in Queens, I'm not going to start killing my neighbors. I'm going to move to a Minnesota with better weather.

You and how many other millions of people?

Would the Minnesotans be happy with that?

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#746

Post by imron »

snuxoll wrote: post #663
hyperion2010 wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this the other day, and the best solution that I came up with was to hit Mars with Ceres in hopes that the collision will be sufficient to restart geological activity on Mars. Sure we have to wait a while for things to cool down again and coalesce, but it seems a much more feasible solution than living in bubbles or trying to create an artificial magnetosphere.

Wonder if a nuclear bomb "The Core"-style would work? (Yes, I realize this is a shittt sci-fi movie, but if you are taking about smashing a dwarf planet into mars to generate a huge explosion it doesn't sound too out of the realm of workable.)

Musk has already considered this: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/elo...

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#747

Post by johnfjacobi »

freehunter wrote: post #261
whothunkdit wrote: post #193

Seems great for all the basic research it will require. But I'm unsure about the morality of it. I think the drive to expand and discover new things is perhaps a direct cause of the deeper problems we have on Earth. Would humanity be better off just becoming a sustainable population of monks? Or are we morally equivalent to a virus, reduced to survival of the fittest and always seeking out the next host to reap?

Does it really matter? I mean honestly... until we discover other life out there, nothing we do matters one little bit as long as we stay alive. We owe it to the future of our species to diversify as much as possible. Even if we go green and save the planet, our planet will end anyway. Accidents, asteroids, etc. Something will get the planet, it will . But even if we go farm out every other planet and make it barren…

> the only thing that makes sense is to keep living like we are the only life in the universe

uh...we aren't.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#748

Post by thesimpsons1022 »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #584
wmccullough wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're my hero! This attitude is why I quit regularly contributing to this site. 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.

What would you prefer? Rolling applause for every idea anyone presents? One benefit of criticism is we might get to read an angle of attack we hadn't thought of and thereby improve our ideas and designs. Sure, when people blow off an idea by saying "pointless, let's save the baby dolphins first" I don't find those comments helpful, but HN almost always has far more in-depth critiques. Edit: fixed a word

so those are the only two choices? automatic cynical criticism or rolling applause? sounds logical. personally i see many other options.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#749

Post by kybernetikos »

mikeash wrote: post #148

Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…

It's not directly your fault, but I wish there were more discussion of making humans a multiplanetary species and less discussion about the discussion here.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#750

Post by Chronic9q »

michaelchisari wrote: post #741
nhance wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the negative comments help wipe out a great bit of future competition. If you kill an idea before it gets started, you reduce the risk of it actually working. Here to the crazy ones.

I encourage people to not say, "This won't work, and here's why." I encourage people to say, "This won't work, here's why, but here's how it could."

Why would I share the secret to success? If you could predict the stock market, you surely wouldn't tell CNN.
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