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Re:A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flig... by triceratops on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @01:18PM (#27120730)
You're being shortsighted. For all you know these Mars colonization efforts might throw off some sort of miracle discovery or technology - like cheap energy or cheap carbon capture.

The problems of sustainability or climate change are about political will and priorities. They aren't something a single billionaire can solve. Focus on mobilizing, organizing, and educating voters if you want to do something about sustainability.

Re:A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flig... by vkou on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @02:34PM (#27121745)
What makes you think those political problems won't follow us to whatever techno-autocracy/libertarian-paradise/commune/??? that you are envisioning for Mars?

That's the appeal of dreaming about Mars. It's all vague, hand-wavy, loosey-goosey. It's like a software project, before the first line of code is written. To buy into the vision, you don't need to figure out how it has to work - you just need to have the hope that everything will fall into place, the code will be perfect and defect-free, and it's going to be way better then the system you are re-writing.

The only problem is that billions of people currently depend on the legacy system, and that the vague plan for the re-write calls for it to be carried out blindfolded, with a hand tied behind your back, and to make things more interesting, the language of choice is brainfuck.

Re:A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flig... by triceratops on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @05:26PM (#27123737)
You're posing it as an either-or choice between going to Mars and fighting climate change. It's not. Fighting climate change is a political problem. Going to Mars is a scientific and engineering problem.

If everyone had your attitude there would never be any progress. Imagine if someone told Newton "Why are you bothering with how things fall? Go solve the plague or something."

I have no vision of any Martian society. We can figure that out if we get there. Getting there is the interesting part right now.

Re:A SpaceX booster now trails only 4 space shuttles in flig... by UnFleshedOne on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @03:12PM (#27122229)
Still a mars colony would have a better chance of bypassing some of the problems inherent in the legacy system, largely because you will have to worry about thousands instead of billions of people at the start. This is a main advantage vs a desert or arctic colony -- those would be way too close.