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07-02-2015, 07:49 AM
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MA
DOES NOT COMPUTE
 
: Nov 2007
: shit creek
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It's not actually a far-seeing perspective though. Right now, the rate at which we can get human beings off-world is outstripped by several orders of magnitude by the birthrate. I don't see that changing much even in a fantastic sci-fi future. Planetary colonisation is not a solution to overpopulation for this reason. At best, we'll get a tiny population of human beings on a new planet (the genetics of which will be fascinating. I expect that they will be almost entirely white, like old science fiction was, unless India and China overtake Europe and the US. Actually, that's pretty likely), which, if successfully nurtured, will grow and develop until we have two overpopulated planets.

But how about escaping from environmental change? Anywhere we find to live will have to be Earth-like, and I know all about terraforming. I know that even the best terraformed planet will be unlike Earth in peculiar ways (gravity, solar radiation, magnetic field protection etc) and will take so much more time to accomplish than we can expect to have before the arrival of an impending disaster. I should think, though, that if we can make another planet Earth-like, then we would be able to make the Earth Earth-like too. However, deliberately altering the Earth's climate on that scale, even to fix it, well... that's an experiment we would be really dumb to try. Exactly as dumb as fucking up the Earth in the first place.

We can ruin the Earth one way or another and flee to a new one. That is what decades of science fiction has taught us to hope for. I say that this is dumb. We should hope for something much better. In this scenario, we are not escaping from the problem, we are bringing it with us. People! Those fuckers! We are exactly the kind of species that can ruin its home, bring a privileged few into space to find a new one, painstakingly construct a new home from scratch, and learn absolutely nothing from the experience. Whatever problem we are running from, we can expect to create anew at our destination.

No. Colonise the galaxy if you can, sure, I'm all down with that. But I see no scenario where humanity survives at all in which the Earth has not also survived.

I think it is time, in more ways than one, that we move away from the narratives of our future that we told ourselves in the last century. They aren't healthy, they aren't likely. Most of the promises we made for science and technology did not come true and in the world our parents have forged for us, they probably won't. We have so many problems right here that won't go away simply by assuming that they one day will. Our ideas for the future skip over that fight. Optimism is entirely unjustified. I really mean that. There is not a single solution to any of the problems facing humanity that can be successfully implemented without three crucial elements: non-corrupt government, accountable leadership, and a general approval for the performance of civic duty, and we need all of these globally. We will die here on this rock without them. What are our odds? The Earth will be both our cradle and our grave without a serious rethink, and science and technology by themselves are not enough. It's not enough to have solutions, you have to be able to employ them and be willing to pay the cost of doing so. We are spoiled, petulant, and privileged. I suspect that we will collectively refuse to do anything of the sort.

Try listening to all these while you play your videogames. Also, argue with the voices in your head all day long. They are clever, but they're also full of shit.
yeah man, you're right. i was just dreaming. and thank you, the voices have died down as of late but i like what you said. i'll bear that in mind, man. thanks.

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Can someone please fill me in on the great secret as to why having Space Colonies means we don't go extinct in your ideal futures?
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Rubbish. Total rubbish. Any reputable expert in human geographics and population says that the number of humans on planet Earth will probably rise to about 10 billion, then level out. There's more than enough resources on this planet to handle that many people if we stop being so goddamn wasteful.
to be completely honest i was just making conversation. i don't fucking know, the fuck you asking me for? think i actually think about what i say? no way, man.

but seriously i have no idea, i was stoned and it seemed like an interesting topic.

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Does anyone subscribe to the transhumanist style of thought that says human existence can be best preserved by uploading our consciousnesses to computers/ robots, so that we might continue until entropy literally breaks us down?

I like that idea.
i think that idea is fucking terrifying.
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