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Let's Colonize Titan

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#411

Post by Neeek »

khedoros1 wrote: post #403
Neeek wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mopeds generally don't do 50-60 mp/h. You would need a larger bike for that, hence the highway comment. They make a lot more sense for suburban/city commutes where there is plenty of slow moving traffic to filter through at a comfortable 40-50 km/h.

Highway speeds here are more like 65-80mph. 50-60 are the streets that I'd be driving on during my commute. Almost my entire commute is made of thoroughfares going between suburbs and commercial areas. I suppose that's why I don't see many mopeds around here.

Woah, that is crazy to me. here in AUS you get 110 km/h max on the highway, everything else is 60, 50 in unmarked suburban streets. My whole world is like half as fast as yours!

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#412

Post by inimino »

gilopll wrote: post #406
phs318u wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course they are the easier to solve, however your comparison is unfair. One one hand we're trying to solve for the entire human race, on the other hand we're solving for a handful of colonists. Now try expanding your colony for a significant proportion of the planet's population.

The colonists have no interest in solving problems for the rest of humanity

Even though they would by developing new technology, as with the space race.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#413

Post by flukus »

Neeek wrote: post #411
khedoros1 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highway speeds here are more like 65-80mph. 50-60 are the streets that I'd be driving on during my commute. Almost my entire commute is made of thoroughfares going between suburbs and commercial areas. I suppose that's why I don't see many mopeds around here.

Woah, that is crazy to me. here in AUS you get 110 km/h max on the highway, everything else is 60, 50 in unmarked suburban streets. My whole world is like half as fast as yours!

Assuming they are in the US (because of MPH), your world probably has a much lower death toll:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#414

Post by Retra »

kilpela wrote: post #351
acchow wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we should colonize other planets because we can. Not as a solution to any problem. I will defer to The West Wing to explain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUHnERJ0zs

What you are describing is inverse vandalism. If we ignore the problems of here and now, the realization of a future where we colonize the stars may never occur. Obligatory quote: Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should. - Dr. Ian Malcolm. Our focus should not be on whether we can do something. We should carefully consider why we…

You act like there is some master-judge who will tell us what we should do that will give different results from our own introspective desire to do exactly what we want. We should do what we want to do, and there is no such thing as vandalism outside of human created law.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#415

Post by braja »

banach wrote: post #106

I think that, before colonizing other planets, we should start by realizing that Earth can easily sustain human kind for the foreseeable future, given some pretty modest tweaks to our way of life (compared to "going multi-planetary" that is). If we start valuing quality over novelty, stop eating animal-based foods and re-organize to live closer to where we work, we can stop the consumption and that is taxing our ecos…

Creating an off-earth self-sustaining civilization is also a way to insure ourselves against a non-human-caused catastrophe that could near-wipe-out humanity. A sequential approach -- solving our most pressing issues first before even thinking about becoming a space-faring civilization -- seems near-sighted and inefficient, especially given the other advantages (technology advances and perspective that might make issues like climate change and income inequality less partisan) from a full-throttle effort toward becoming a multi-planetary species.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#416

Post by Retra »

pmoriarty wrote: post #225
maze-le wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One problem might be the sulfuric acid rains. The SO2-cloud layer is well above the '1 atm'-isobar level (~50km). So we would need building materials that are resistant to sulfuric acid. But other than that I also find the idea highly fascinating.

Is it possible to terraform the SO2-clouds in to something more benign?

Like what? You've got three atoms in that molecule. Not many other stable configurations to work with.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#417

Post by Neeek »

flukus wrote: post #413
Neeek wrote: post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woah, that is crazy to me. here in AUS you get 110 km/h max on the highway, everything else is 60, 50 in unmarked suburban streets. My whole world is like half as fast as yours!

Assuming they are in the US (because of MPH), your world probably has a much lower death toll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

By half, according to this.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#418

Post by khedoros1 »

Neeek wrote: post #411
khedoros1 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highway speeds here are more like 65-80mph. 50-60 are the streets that I'd be driving on during my commute. Almost my entire commute is made of thoroughfares going between suburbs and commercial areas. I suppose that's why I don't see many mopeds around here.

Woah, that is crazy to me. here in AUS you get 110 km/h max on the highway, everything else is 60, 50 in unmarked suburban streets. My whole world is like half as fast as yours!

110 is closer to what the actual highway speed limits are. Usually 105-112. But that's different than the speed of traffic on that highway, which may range between 40 and 125, depending on traffic levels, time of day, and such.

I live in southern California, which has its own particular brand of insanity, when it comes to the roads.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#419

Post by khedoros1 »

Neeek wrote: post #417
flukus wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming they are in the US (because of MPH), your world probably has a much lower death toll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...

By half, according to this.

It's only 37% worse, when measured by vehicle-km (I say in an optimistic tone, trying to hide my displeasure at the number).

I lived in Germany for a few years. I was too young to drive at the time, but I remember that my parents were impressed by some of the behaviors taught there, and I've always wished that American driver education was less half-assed than it is.

Re: Let's Colonize Titan

#420

Post by aminok »

banach wrote: post #106

I think that, before colonizing other planets, we should start by realizing that Earth can easily sustain human kind for the foreseeable future, given some pretty modest tweaks to our way of life (compared to "going multi-planetary" that is). If we start valuing quality over novelty, stop eating animal-based foods and re-organize to live closer to where we work, we can stop the consumption and that is taxing our ecos…

>If we re-distribute our wealth, population growth will subside.

I don't see how redistributing wealth will reduce population growth. Natural selection ensures the population will grow and wealth redistribution will ensure it doesn't grow at a rate that's proportional to the growth in resource production.

Moreover, I don't see how you can get 300 million people in the US, let alone 7 billion people on Earth, to all agree to redistribute their personal assets.

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