String transportation system to move people on Earth already built in Ekotehnoparke in Belarus. Travel speed of 500 km / h. The project is implemented through equity crowdfunding. Shares in the project are sold cheaper by 100 times. Read more about the project here: https://goo.gl/BnClp6
Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
971–980 of 1001 posts
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#972Earlier quoted context omitted.
Popular false beliefs always seem harmless until they suddenly aren't. The principle of explosion means that one false belief can justify literally any course of action, and by the time people start on a harmful course it's too late.
For the principle of explosion to work you have to actually confirm that a belief is false, or at least calculate a justifiable probability that it is false. You can't just assume that it is false and extrapolate from there.
The point is you can't assume it doesn't matter because it seems harmless-if-false. The grandparent asked "why do you care [whether the things Musk is saying are true]?", but the answer is that you have to care about anything that's likely to influence a large number of people.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#973Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree --- Mars is a pit. It's a barren desert at the bottom of a great big hole. Its biggest, and perhaps only, advantage is that it has an atmosphere, and gas is so much easier to deal with for ISRU than anything else, as you don't need to mine it: just open a valve and suck it in. I notice Musk's ISRU plan is to mine ice; I do wonder how he's going to do that, as it won't be easy. But... you know what... if you c…
> I notice Musk's ISRU plan is to mine ice; I do wonder how he's going to do that, as it won't be easy. Load up the icy dirt into a chamber using a digger, heat it up and precipitate out the water vapor. The only potential problem is separating out other volatiles, but fractionation is pretty basic tech.
D'oh, I totally should have thought of that.
Provided you have a decent power source that's easy: the hardest part is getting your raw material into the chamber and disposing of the debris afterwards. Humans driving flat-pack bulldozers, most likely.
Would work on the Moon, too.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#974Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just finished reading these books for what seems like the millionth time, and Mr. Musk hasn't even begun to answer the questions they raise. What is the legal structure going to be on the 1MM person colony? Who gets to go? What are the transplants allowed to do there? Who rules? Who do the rulers answer to? Are we going to Terraform Mars? If yes, under whose auspices and with what restrictions? FTR: this is Elon Mu…
While I wouldn't personally mind a "corporate dystopia" (or at least a sci-fi version of such) on Mars at all, it seems exceedingly unlikely, even conditional on the success of the whole enterprise -- for one, there wouldn't be any actual profits to be made there for a very long time :) BTW, I haven't read these particular books, and perhaps they are different from other KSR stuff that I've seen, but at this point I…
Not all progress is technological.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#975Some 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,…
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…
> I am from Norway, so I grew up with the Law of Jante. I am surprised that that law seems to have spread across the globe.
A similar concept is 'tall poppy syndrome'.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#976Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
In the stock market you play against others. In human development, you play alongside others. Bringing others up also beings up.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#977Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me, the 2 day vs 6 months commute outweigh that. Then again I haven't done the math. In the long run, there should of course be settlements on both bodies.
Once you get there, what do you do? Just go back?
What do people do on Earth? Live, thrive, expand, explore. All that stuff.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#978Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Re: hyperloop: I think he specifically said he didn't have the time/energy/money/focus necessary to work on an implementation. Musk is a visionary, and I think we need people like that. He said of Tesla and SpaceX that he went in with a fatalistic view: that there was a 10% chance of success. In his talk yesterday, he repeated a phrase he used before, about moving the ball forward as far as he can. So I'm an Elon Mus…
> he went in with a fatalistic view
He even did that with regard to the chance of surviving the trip to Mars: he emphasised that there was a high risk of death for the first travellers and that he wouldn't want to do it. He actually stated that the first travellers would have to be comfortable with the high risk of death.
He's not saying "I'll colonize Mars". He's saying "We should colonize Mars. I'll make sure people interested in doing it can get there."
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#979Earlier 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…
Tesla cars are extremely popular in Norway though - I was in Bergen a few months back and electric cars were everywhere.
Norwegian's receive huge benefits when buying an electric car as far as I recall — tax breaks, free parking, free pass through road tolls, etc.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#980One Race the human Race,We all have the same origin ,last I checked it was 2016, I abhor those who play the race card and more so theSHEEPLE who feel that"I DOHAVE SOME PART AND SHAMEON ME.WE THE PEOPLE.