Re:Barack Obama: America Will Take the Giant Leap to Mars
by kobeya on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @12:49PM
(#12686111)
There is no sentient life in Mars. If there is microbial life on Mars, it is not making efficient use of its resources. I will not trade the billions of future people that might call a terraformed Mars home for some scum on the bottom of a rock.
Re:Barack Obama: America Will Take the Giant Leap to Mars
by stordoff on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @01:16PM
(#12686362)
I don't necessarily disagree, but I do wonder if life exists somewhere in the Universe that would view humanity in the same way.
Re:Barack Obama: America Will Take the Giant Leap to Mars
by kobeya on Tuesday October 11, 2016 @01:28PM
(#12686489)
No doubt. We'd best be ready. Thankfully astronomical data makes this unlikely at least in our stellar neighborhood, so we have some time to grow in both power and maturity.
Re:Barack Obama: America Will Take the Giant Leap to Mars
by Can_Not on Sunday October 16, 2016 @02:37PM
(#12720168)
We have a small chance of exploiting 1% of Mars in less than 100 years. The sooner we get our first factory there, the sooner we'll know if there is any reason not to build the millionth factory.
2- I'm not so anthropocentric as to think that the only value in the universe is human value. It's not our universe; we're an infinitesimal fraction of it. Other life has inhabited earth for billions of years, and maybe other places too. The terrestrial or extraterrestrial environments have value for existing and future life, regardless of whether that is human life. And most of life isn't human, and won't be in the future either.