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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

spacex.com

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#851

Post by Kequc »

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

> What would you prefer? Rolling applause for every idea anyone presents?

Skepticism is a good thing but it's unevenly applied in the weirdest way. Solar Roadways, it seems like the smallest amount of skepticism would have dismantled the entire idea. Two nobody snake oil salesmen from out of their garage were roundly applauded by everyone to such a degree that competitors opened up.

When Musk presents a design on a much larger scale following a career of related success, it's called down?

Therefore I appreciate criticism but I'm skeptical of its sources.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#852

Post by randallsquared »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #104
anexprogrammer wrote: post #93

I'd really like to see us taking space seriously. While I'm still here. One of my earliest strong memories was the last moon landing. This was followed by years of "Tomorrow's World" and "Horizon" telling us about the Moon bases, Mars bases and orbital platforms that would soon follow. We got Skylab and some very interesting probes. I'm a tiny bit disappointed in that. We were meant to be en route to Starfleet Comman…

This brings up a good point. Why mars first? Why not a moon colony first?

The moon is high ground from anywhere on Earth, which makes state action involving colonization efforts very likely. It's easy to point out that there will be no bombardment or invasion from Mars in the next half century, regardless of how things go for settlements there.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#853

Post by Gracana »

throwanem wrote: post #554
Gracana wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think hackaday is a good example of a community with similar (techie) people to HN that has gone further down the same path of negativity, cynicism, and salt. HN is great and the moderators here do a good job (I'm always impressed by the way dang handles issues), but I do think some sort of push is needed to get us off of that path.

Hackaday comments have never not been salty, and I say that as someone who's followed that site since before the pictures were in color. I'm not sure there is a useful comparison to be drawn.

I was there in those days too. Maybe it didn't change, I just got sick of it.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#854

Post by lallysingh »

orky56 wrote: post #784

I'm excited with Musk's grand vision. However I want to know why this can't happen even sooner. Here's a breakdown of what was discussed that may lead to a faster timeline: 1) Funding: Current SpaceX resources are tied up in creating the basic infrastructure that will lead to interplanetary travel. SpaceX is still private leading to Musk prioritizing these awesome ventures but still tied to revenue from contracts and…

For #1: he could sell a minority share publicly. I think a lot of people could see a successful spacex make quite a bit of money on the current plan.

For #2: We'll see about that. Mars has sat there for a long time, and nobody else has done much about it. By the time others get interested because of (a) SpaceX showing that it can be done (b) Popular interest due to SpaceX's work, SpaceX may be too far ahead for anyone else to help (outside of being customers).

For #3: Agreed. I think this may naturally occur as the company stabilizes a bit and the "living on the razor's edge" feeling dissipates. At some point they'll focus more on getting it right then meeting deadlines.

For #4: You can control political/cultural/international issues on mars by controlling who gets on the ship from earth.

For #5: a bit of hero worship for the future marstronaughts will do plenty, I think. There's a lot of innate interest in whoever becomes the first human to step foot on another planet.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#855

Post by lallysingh »

nixos wrote: post #530
ChampCrawDaddy wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey if you pay for the research and development, equipment, transportation, construction, and deal with the myriad of other problems that come with living on another planet I'm sure you'd be free to make your own rules. You make it sound like Elon owes us something already.

He doesn't. But that doesn't mean that I'm comfortable with potential dictatorships like that.

It doesn't have to be a dictatorship if you already control who gets on the planet.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#856

Post by erikb »

Since I've read more about Elon Musk I'm not sure any more that he really is the person who will bring humankind one step further. However, I really like that slogan "making humans a multiplanetary species". It really hits the spot for me. Something I also want to work towards.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#857

Post by saiya-jin »

doikor wrote: post #834
randomsearch wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

most people's lives are much more driven by their emotional opinions/decisions rather than smart, factual rational approach. compared to hard facts, emotions can be changed/manipulated rather easily. examples visible everywhere, all the time

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#859

Post by lsadam0 »

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…

"No ground in reality" according to you. History is full of the success and failures of people trying to achieve such pie in the sky ideals. While past success is not a true indication of future success, Musk has a history of delivering.

Your argument comes across as "There are unsolved problems, and it's expensive, so don't try". Attitudes like that don't drive human progress. Society was not built on "it's hard, so don't try". I'm kind of surprised that this attitude has to be argued against on Hacker News, of all places.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#860

Post by collinmanderson »

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…

Yes, the plan itself doesn't deserve a lot of praise, but knowing Elon, it will likely happen eventually (though usually later than when he says it will :)
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