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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#831

Post by celticninja »

andrepd wrote: post #822
jernfrost wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, I wrote a medium article about exactly this phenomenon partly inspired by you: https://medium.com/@Jernfrost/the-crab-people-and-space-expl... I've been annoyed by this attitude for quite some time now. You see it all the time. Same deal with Tesla an Model S. Because not everybody can afford it, and because not all power is renewable an electric car like Tesla Model S seems like some sort of terrible crime. W…

Oh it's progress, no doubt. There's no question about that. What me and other skeptics argue against is these kinds of overly futuristic announcements that have no ground in reality, yet have people praising them like they are some kind of achievement by themselves. Elon Musk grandly announces: I'm going to make humans an interplanetary species. This is such a grand and far reaching goal that were it to be achieved i…

Wasn't JFKs claim that the US would put a man on the moon within a decade seen as overly futuristic/optimistic at the time?

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#832

Post by hoorayimhelping »

nurettin wrote: post #720
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,…

I came here to learn from "armchair experts" about the challenges that lie ahead for such forays. Instead I am seeing that the discussion devolved to over-sensitive drivel. This might not be your initial intention, but you caused this. HN bunch is courteous and precise and that is generally best applied to topics which require expertise. You triggered them to defensive mode and by now most are accusing you of fanboyi…

>You triggered them to defensive mode and by now most are accusing you of fanboyism in the most courteous and precise way possible.

>I hope you set an example to future commenters on what not to write.

Oh go fuck yourself. Every thread is full of armchair experts, and every thread is full of know it alls who get defensive whenever you say something they don't like, go find a different thread and stop whining. Who the fuck are you to try assign blame to someone like this? Someone made a comment and it changed the your perception of the discussion so now you're wagging your finger at them? Get a grip.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#833

Post by qaq »

ekianjo wrote: post #702
qaq wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's helpful when the critic poses at least a fraction of expertise and experience as related to the subject of the people who's idea is being criticised.

Thats precisely why HN is not reddit.

Well I still have serious doubts that majority of critics in this thread are aerospace engineers.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#834

Post by doikor »

randomsearch wrote: post #769
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,…

I think the problem here is one of misanthropy. I'm not saying it applies to all those commenting negatively, but one commonly held philosophy amongst some of my geek friends is this logic: "the world is terrible and people are terrible" -> "there's no point trying to improve things" -> "I don't need to improve things" It's essentially an argument that allows people to live a defeatist (selfish?) life without feeling…

"the world is terrible and people are terrible" -> "there's no point trying to improve things" -> "I don't need to improve things"

This is kinda a stupid position to hold as statistically for the average human on this planet everything today is better then it was yesterday and most likely will be better tomorrow then today.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#835

Post by simonh »

I'd expect the first rocket, or several rockets to actually stay on Mars at least for a while.

1. It means you have somewhere to live and even if you set up habitats it acts as a fallback habitat.

2. You'll need a return to Earth option if things go potato shaped.

3. It can manufacture fuel in advance for future visiting ships so acts as a backup to their Sabatier reactor and other important systems.

4. Once you have several, you can afford to risk using one to travel to other parts of Mars and back to get science from other biome... er.. I mean prospect for resources.

I wonder if these will be capable of operating automatically. It would be nice to be able to prove out the system by sending an automated cargo only mission there and back, or maybe with a skeleton crew. It's fascinating that they're aiming to go directly to this without any less ambitious manned vehicles and missions first.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#836

Post by Klathmon »

dredmorbius wrote: post #703
Klathmon wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some ways HN is designed to combat this. You need to "earn" downvotes with contributions, and the sites UX is designed in a way to slow down low effort comments, and to make comments sit for a bit before allowing replies (with workarounds if needed). The things that aren't features (like the lack of notifications) also help.

There's also a quite-active, and largely effective, moderation effort by @dang and ... I forget the other mod, scbc or something like that. I've been making comparative studies of a few communities (HN, Reddit, G+, Imzy, Ello), and it's interesting to see how various ones work. In particular, there's a tremendous culture against the types of even indirect personal attacks at HN which fly in spades elsewhere. I saw @d…

I have tried most of them and feel largely the same.

HN seems in that sweet spot for me where it is large enough to have a good amount of discussion but still has very good quality.

Most "reddit but more free" sites turn into imzy or even worse voat. G+ communities are too small for me, and finding a good community is proving to be hard. And I've given up on reddit for any larger scale technical discussion (there's just too much vitriol and "my team is better" sentiment there. It always seems to focus on the negative, and creating a "positive only" subreddit seems like a bad idea, and it attracts the users that will fight that idea on principle)

I'll need to try Ello though. Have you looked at lobsters? It's much smaller than HN but also more technical (and with its own share of bias against anything newer in my experience)

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#839

Post by grondilu »

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,…

> If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like.

You forget that Musk envision a public-private partnership for his insane project. That means public money will be involved.

I don't mind Musk building an interplanetary rocket. I even agree with him that it will be useful to visit other places than mars. But his project to build a "self-sustaining city" on mars sounds ludicruous to me and I don't wont any tax money to be spent in it.

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