31–40 of 129 posts
Future of expeditions to Mars?
On a single usb stick we have interactive games and all human knowledge available, I think mars explorers will be just fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was thinking the same thing. But… although I do 100% drink the Elon Koolaid about "us" colonizing Mars, I really doubt that humans, as we know them today, are the creature that is going to be there. It will instead be some planet-specific tweaked versions of us and other creatures, eventually in a different substrate even, as opposed to bags of meat. When you think of it that way, the possibilities for mental health…
Not just mental health, but physical as well. Humans are not well suited for long term high G environments, while I have every expectation that we will someday make it to other planetary systems I doubt the meatbags will be coming along.
Plot from Wikipedia:
"The Terror is a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to the Arctic in 1845–1848. The series' first season begins with the Royal Navy's polar explorer ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror having recently left Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, heading south toward King William Island into uncharted territory, seeking to find and confirm the existence and navigability of the fabled Northwest Passage. The ships are soon frozen and trapped in the ice, and those aboard must survive the harsh weather conditions and each other, while being stalked by an elusive menace."
>A current theory among social scientists suggests that pibloktoq [a temporary madness found in Inuhuit peoples] was not a congenital malady peculiar to the Inuhuit but rather a severe stress reaction arising from early contact with Western outsiders.
Could someone explain this theory to me?
secondly, I sincerely doubt that the early expeditions had anything remotely resembling adequate nutrition, besides enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy.
I would imagine a very restricted diet combined with not seeing the sun for 6 months would fuck up a lot of people
It is funny and slightly dissonant that Roald Amundsen, the greatest polar explorer of all (forgive me Fridtjof) is mentioned in a subordinate clause as "The Belgica’s first mate, a fellow Norwegian named Roald Amundsen".
I too noticed that the author didn’t connect the first man at the South Pole with Amundsen
Future of expeditions to Mars?
Even the Moon. ISS visitors are selected very, very carefully to minimise these risks. But as soon as you get a slightly larger colony further from Earth, mental health is going to become a problem. Which is why Mars is a tougher project than it seems. The ferry part is relatively easy compared to the incredibly difficult challenge of building a self-sustaining stable ecosystem that can survive on a manageably small…
Nutrition and a sufficiently large social, group on the other hand, may be a problem
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like I want to hear more about what you're saying but despite reading it several times, your comment remains pretty opaque to me. Could you elaborate in a more plain English how exactly you think Mars colonisation will actually go? My understanding is that Elon considers this unmistakably as a concrete near-term goal, whereas - certainly to my knowledge - "tweaked versions of us... in a different substrate" se…
I think he means transhumanism. Genetically adopted humans/cyborgs, that can survive the radiation etc. Scie-Fi for sure.
> The evolution of dark skin is believed to have begun around 1.2 million years ago,[9] in light-skinned early hominid species after they moved from the equatorial rainforest to the sunny savannas. In the heat of the savannas, better cooling mechanisms were required, which were achieved through the loss of body hair and development of more efficient perspiration. The loss of body hair led to the development of dark skin pigmentation, which acted as a mechanism of natural selection against folate depletion, and to a lesser extent, DNA damage. The primary factor contributing to the evolution of dark skin pigmentation was the breakdown of folate in reaction to ultraviolet radiation; the relationship between folate breakdown induced by ultraviolet radiation and reduced fitness as a failure of normal embryogenesis and spermatogenesis led to the selection of dark skin pigmentation. By the time modern Homo sapiens evolved, all humans were dark-skinned.
Real women and men show real guts by taking huge chances with their mental state and life in general.
Today we sacrifice the same two things but for so much less. It's sad.
That includes so many of us? Why? Because they know the crazy thoughts will pass.
I'm not talking about individuals with serious mental illness like Schizophrenia, or have a genetic lineage of mental illness.
I'm talking people that have survived mild mental illnesses, like dysthymia, and anxiety.
People who know the craziness in their heads will go away, and realize the world is imperfect. Realize they are far from perfect. Realize their way might not be the best way.
I'm usually leary of the "perfect" candidates that get these coveted positions.
Yes--I'm leary of the Ph.D types whom sailed through school. The ones with a big egos that feel they feel like they are the best, and claim they were never sick at sea. I think we have all met the type?
Put a few of those people in real isolation, and danger, with peers just like themselfs-- seems like a horrid recipe for disaster?
(At one time I felt like I controlled my surroundings. A few blown mental gaskets made me a more tolerant person. It did mess with my resume though. I felt the same way right after 911. i felt the FBI should be recruiting intelligent convicts at San Quentin, or wherever, rather than the guy with the 4 year degree who took a good head shot. I changed my tune when I realized the enemy of 911 was nuanced, and not so straight foreward, but I still felt you hire guys whom break societal laws in order to find the bad guys.)
Future of expeditions to Mars?
Was thinking the same thing. But… although I do 100% drink the Elon Koolaid about "us" colonizing Mars, I really doubt that humans, as we know them today, are the creature that is going to be there. It will instead be some planet-specific tweaked versions of us and other creatures, eventually in a different substrate even, as opposed to bags of meat. When you think of it that way, the possibilities for mental health…