Author of Red Mars calls 'bullshit' on emigrating to the planet • Hacker News Board

Re: Author of Red Mars calls 'bullshit' on emigrating to the planet

#151

Post by mekdoonggi » Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 1:09 PM UTC

hagbard_c wrote: post #147

tim333 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of Elon fanboys who just agree with his ideas without thinking.

Maybe there are but I see far more sufferers from MDS who just have to let everyone know they really, really don't like the man. I don't know him so I don't know whether I'd like him or not. I do know he's achieved a number of remarkable things but he also seems to have a tendency to overestimate what can be achieved within a given time frame and budget which seems to make him promise more than he can deliver. There'…

I really, really don't like the man, and it has nothing to do with his business decisions.

Re: Author of Red Mars calls 'bullshit' on emigrating to the planet

#152

Post by Betelbuddy » Thu, Apr 02, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

b112 wrote: post #148

inaros wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are not in a meeting at SpaceX trying to please Elon. I dont think you realize what you are up against...Do you know what radiation does to humans? For example Suni Williams went to the ISS and got stuck for 9 months. Come back white haired, with bone loss, muscle wasting, and vision damage. She retired from NASA within months. And the ISS is inside Earth magnetosphere... FYI Mars has no magnetic field and almost…

We are not in a meeting at SpaceX trying to please Elon What are you even talking about? I assure you, before Elon was known to anyone but his mother, Mars has been a dream for countless humans. I find it... repugnant, to have my dream presumed to be someone else's. If we took the attitude you're taking here, we'd never leave home. Explore. Expand our sciences, our capabilities, our experience. I find it astonishing…

>> I find it astonishing that so many in the compute field, find technical issues, then immediately proclaim impossibility predicated upon the weird concept that there is no improvements or advancements possible.

Just because we had a man on the Moon, does not mean we can have a man on the Sun...

Did you even looked at the radiation argument or the soil composition?

Re: Author of Red Mars calls 'bullshit' on emigrating to the planet

#153

Post by nutjob2 » Fri, Apr 03, 2026, 4:28 PM UTC

hagbard_c wrote: post #50

nutjob2 wrote: post #29

How about we just commit to fucking up one planet at a time? Arguably humanity is a dangerous invasive species that destroys any environment it inhabits. Until we do better we should treat other planets more like a park than fresh real estate.

If this is how you think about your own species I'd hate to learn what you think about other species. Nihilism is really a horrible substitute for religion, all doom and gloom and no salvation in sight.

I care enough about my species to tell the truth. It might save it from extinction.

You should google the word "Nihilism" before you use it again.