Mars Is No Earth
theatlantic.com
Mars Is No Earth
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Re: Mars Is No Earth
#2It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#3The myth of a wonderful terraformed Mars must be pushed as part of capitalist technosaviourism.
If we recklessly consume Earth into dust that's actually ok because technology can save us as we simply load into rocket ships for a new life on the offworld colonies.
If we accept the notion that actually there's only one Earth, that we already live on a paradise planet and that we must protect what we have then going hand and hand with that is the notion that we'd have to halt much of what we've been doing doing for the last decades to save paradise.
The acceptance of one planet that must be conserved at all costs suggests that there could be even be limits to production which is antithetical and untenable to capitalists.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#4Yet? It seems the writer is debating a view that Elon doesn't have. His goal is to begin the process of making Mars habitable, I'm not aware of anyone with the position that Mars is currently as nice as Earth. Terraforming Mars is a long term vision and not one we'll see in our lifetimes. If we don't take steps towards achieving that goal then of course it will always seem lofty. Martian greenhouses may sooner emulate the feeling of being on Earth until it gets sufficiently habitable. As long as there are sufficient resources to start colonizing it, I don't see any points made as to "why not".
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#5The myth of a wonderful terraformed Mars must be pushed as part of capitalist technosaviourism. If we recklessly consume Earth into dust that's actually ok because technology can save us as we simply load into rocket ships for a new life on the offworld colonies. If we accept the notion that actually there's only one Earth, that we already live on a paradise planet and that we must protect what we have then going han…
Extra-planetary colonization is so far-fetched given our impending climate crisis. We will struggle to adapt to the oncoming environmental changes in a planet that we have completely adapted do. The thought that leaving this custom bubble for one that is actively hostile, and thriving there, is a grand delusion. I admire the explorative & scientific nature of space missions, but I am also pro-reality.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#6It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the de…
TR would not have said it in better circumstances than now, when man's solemn plight to leave the planet is being pondered in earnest.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#7The myth of a wonderful terraformed Mars must be pushed as part of capitalist technosaviourism. If we recklessly consume Earth into dust that's actually ok because technology can save us as we simply load into rocket ships for a new life on the offworld colonies. If we accept the notion that actually there's only one Earth, that we already live on a paradise planet and that we must protect what we have then going han…
Earth is not paradise, on a timeframe of tens of thousands of years it is a volatile place that could blow us up in an instant. Terraforming and space mining are absolute necessities for human survival. You really only can argue that maybe it is one or two centuries too early to think about colonizing Mars, but you gotta start somewhere.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#8Yet? It seems the writer is debating a view that Elon doesn't have. His goal is to begin the process of making Mars habitable, I'm not aware of anyone with the position that Mars is currently as nice as Earth. Terraforming Mars is a long term vision and not one we'll see in our lifetimes. If we don't take steps towards achieving that goal then of course it will always seem lofty. Martian greenhouses may sooner emulat…
I take your point; I think maybe this line of discourse is to prevent the "savior" line of thinking, whereby all manner of ills will be addressed by technological advancement, and the day-to-day drudgery of improving our current situation is lessened. The aspirational nature of it is - of course - grand, but maybe a more inward, introspective, look at our current situation would be better in the long-term.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#9If you think on a large scale, humanity has a limited number of years left until the heat death of the sun... so this planet..and us..arent going to be here forever. And that's if we don't nuke each other first. Humans are very minimally removed from violent monkeys evolutionarily. It's not far-fetched to imagine a nuclear war being started simply by an insult to a mentally unstable world leader.
It took humans 100,000 years to go from spears and caves to developing portable phones to surf cat videos.
So we have a lot of work to do to get to interstellar travel.
Re: Mars Is No Earth
#10> Someone in his position could do so many things on our little blue dot itself to help those in need.
The entire article boils down to this one tired old argument.
And in the case of Musk, while Teslas don't help people in need directly, the adoption of electric cars and other electric transportation will help the entire world population by reducing air pollution and climate change.
So, whynotboth.jpg.