Will Humanity Colonize Space?

[ToroidalBoat]

With the current state of affairs, I sure hope not. One Clown World is way too many.

But space travel is hard, and physics may limit Earthlings to the Sol system anyway.

 

[DieBrauneKompanie]

We need cloning before we can colonize other worlds. Skill imprinting too for fast training. Want to colonize quickly? Send the cloning ships. Might be far from now, but we'll learn terraforming and starfusion (fixing the sun so we don't get supernova'd)

 

[We Are The Witches]

I mean when you think about it, Greys flying down on Earth with some kind of diplomatic mission makes as much sense as an entomologist doing the same to ants in an Amazon jungle. There's no point and you can bring some nasty disease or parasite if you go inside.

It doesn't even need to have a nefarious reason: they might avoid humanity simply because they don't want to disrupt our development as a species. As in, they're making PhDs out of us.

Imagine if humanity knew of a planet within reach with relatively advanced lifeform in it, like a planet with something similar to Neanderthals in it.

What would humanity do? Monitor it, but maybe they'd also try to send some message to it? Like what they did with the golden plates sent to space with a cryptic message (the Voyager golden records?). There probably (or maybe) would be an attempt to educate them and establish a relationship between species, for the prosperity of both, and for the long run.

Once the project starts, there would be users on Reddit/Twitter complaining about helping some other species first, when people in planet Earth are dying from famine and illnesses.

At one point, some of those aliens (probably very human like) would be brought to Earth for diplomatic, building rapport, learning purposes, and one of them would go on one of those late night shows like Jimmy Fallon, being asked stupid questions from the little English they learned. And then everyone would clap.

 

[demicolon]

What would humanity do?

Try to make money out of it. Of course you'll have idiots trying to "enlighten" them and getting raped, murdered or eaten for their trouble once grandpa gets fed up with the do-gooder scolding the whole village for how shit their food and traditions are.

IMO this whole "contact" thing is something you really don't want if you're the more developed species, because the dudes below you on the evolutionary ladder are certainly more savage and cunning and will quickly figure out how to weaponize your knowledge. It's like if we went to Africa to teach monkeys how to use the combustion engine, it's a matter of time before they figure out how to apply this knowledge to make gunpowder and rifles.

It's the reason I suspect that if aliens exist, they're extremely careful to make sure we will never find any proof of their existence. It's for their own good.

 

[Blue Flying Leaf]

We can't even colonize africa ...

 

[DieBrauneKompanie]

We can't even colonize africa ...

We were getting there but communist jews and Chinese fucked it all up.

Like I said, we'll need to have cloning so we don't get outbred and massacred. We'll also need universal translators.

Blacks, Indians, Arabs and jews will have to be banned from being cloned.

 

[Zorak Prison Pod]

Specifically, Americans will colonize space. and I mean Americans only.

The Firefly vision of the future where everyone speaks an English-Mandarin pidgin is fun, but nah. The future is American English only.

 

[MadStan]

Do you find Antartica lovely? Or how about a hole 1 mile beneath the surface of Earth? Oh no? Well it's far more exciting than space to live in. Space is fucking boring and will bore you to death. A rollercoaster is really cool for a quick thrill, but you aren't going to live on one either.

Jesus, we can't get people to live outside and mix with their own neighbors because they can't leave their phones or computers alone, so forget space entirely.

 

[Gandhi's Left Hook]

We can't even live on the moon due to cosmic rays. If we sent people to Mars they will be half brain dead by the time they make it there and probably die on impact.

Earths magnetic field protects us and the ISS.

The only way would be to create a magentic field around the space ship and then around the settlement. A space ship wouldn't be too hard but the energy requirments scale exponentially with size so we would be very limited. Living underground would not fix this.

 

[Welfare Bum]

I can't see a practical purpose to space colonization outside of dick waving about how you're colonizing space, which is kind of what the space race was. Sure there are plenty of valuable natural resources out there in the void, and extracting them would make anyone obscenely wealthy. But the sheer cost of actually getting to the point where we could extract those resources is so astronomical, uneconomical, and impractical that I can't see it actually happening outside our solar system. Maybe some outposts on the moon, a few on Mars, Europa, Titan, and other bodies to serve to bloat the net worth of already obscenely wealthy corporations and governments. We'll see none of that money. So why should we care?

 

[Hateful Harefolk 88]

nope we aren't becoming a space faring civilization,ever.
don't believe me? check out the kessler syndrome, jeets will make sure there's no escape from this world.

 

[Lemmingwiser]

What would humanity do? Monitor it, but maybe they'd also try to send some message to it? Like what they did with the golden plates sent to space with a cryptic message (the Voyager golden records?). There probably (or maybe) would be an attempt to educate them and establish a relationship between species, for the prosperity of both, and for the long run.

Once the project starts, there would be users on Reddit/Twitter complaining about helping some other species first, when people in planet Earth are dying from famine and illnesses.

At one point, some of those aliens (probably very human like) would be brought to Earth for diplomatic, building rapport, learning purposes, and one of them would go on one of those late night shows like Jimmy Fallon, being asked stupid questions from the little English they learned. And then everyone would clap

We can't have meaningful conversations with other intelligent creatures like corvids, elephants, dolphins, not even apes that only a differ 1% of dna. The interaction with koko the gorilla did not reach talk show level. The idea we find another human and talk to it like a brother of sister is a human fantasy that could never be fulfilled, except by other actual humans.

 

[We Are The Witches]

We can't have meaningful conversations with other intelligent creatures like corvids, elephants, dolphins, not even apes that only a differ 1% of dna. The interaction with koko the gorilla did not reach talk show level. The idea we find another human and talk to it like a brother of sister is a human fantasy that could never be fulfilled, except by other actual humans.

Not necessarily, if the lifeform is intelligent and non-belligerant enough, a form of effective communication could be established gradually. The differences in DNA/genetic makeup could play a role in its challenge, but as mentioned this is not necessarily the case, or not directly correlated.

You know the idea was with a similar-to-humans creature, like a form of Neanderthal type of animal, but imagine it was like an octopus (wild example ahead), and the form of communication was through patterns of visual stimuli, like colors. They would change colors in their skin, in a specific pattern & order to formulate an idea, well, what if this was analyzed and some tool (like a piano, but instead of sounds it makes colors and patterns) was developed for this.

And what if this creature was intelligent enough to associate these with frequencies and sounds instead, then something could be done there. Obviously this example is a bit fantastic, but not impossible, even for a case where the creature resembles nothing like a human. If they did resemble a human with a larynx, capable of making wildly different sounds, and hearing in order to sense this, then it's the same idea but with less steps.

All of this assumes a higher level of intelligence from the creature, even if lesser than current Earthling humans.

 

[888Flux]

The problem of space colonization is secondary to the fundamental problem of the human condition.


The only world we live in right now currently exists here. Our material world exists in a 3 lb fragile organ with the consistency of jello. Everything we are and will be is trapped inside this stupid nigger.

We understand the brain only at a primitive level. Soyence only has crude models to represent the thing responsible for our entire reality.

We don't know anything about the human brain. Anyone telling you otherwise is full of shit, wrong, or lying.

That's our problem. We don't know anything about this thing despite it being responsible for everything. Every facet of human experience is projected from here. A 3 lb cluster of water, blood vessels, protein and fat.

We are solving for all the wrong problems. All of our problems are here.

Humanity's constraints are biological. To defeat the vicious cycle of suffering, self-sabotage, and misery we must learn to first understand the brain. Then anything is possible.

Mastery of the stars begins with mastery of ourselves.

 

[Nate Higgs]

but human history and modern global panorama showed us that humanity sucks at gatekeeping

Real gatekeeping hasn't been tried.

Ok maybe briefly in the 1940's.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Yes, but it'll only be used as a place exclusively for the World's Elites, while the rest of Earth is in all-out anarchy mode as the Elites watch while they pleasure themselves to the destruction.

 

[Lemmingwiser]

You know the idea was with a similar-to-humans creature, like a form of Neanderthal type of animal, but imagine it was like an octopus (wild example ahead), and the form of communication was through patterns of visual stimuli, like colors. They would change colors in their skin, in a specific pattern & order to formulate an idea, well, what if this was analyzed and some tool (like a piano, but instead of sounds it makes colors and patterns) was developed for this.

Octopi are pretty intelligent. What's the last time someone had a conversation with one?

You're thinking it's just an IQ thing, but it's also a relatibility thing. Imagine if dogs had the vocal cords to speak. A really smart breed of dog has an IQ of like 70, which is the same of the average of some african populations. Yet you can converse with the latter, not the first. And even if the dog had the vocal chords, you have to bridge the entirely different experience of having completely different sense experience, different coded desires. Having a conversation across vastly different cultures is almost intelligible, but they're still filtering it through a human experience.

I don't think you're respecting the chasm you're trying to bridge.

 

[Idiotron]

We will only get as far as Saturn and only because of resources.
We will never leave the solar system.

 

[Hellbound Hellhound]

Do you find Antartica lovely? Or how about a hole 1 mile beneath the surface of Earth? Oh no? Well it's far more exciting than space to live in. Space is fucking boring and will bore you to death. A rollercoaster is really cool for a quick thrill, but you aren't going to live on one either.

Jesus, we can't get people to live outside and mix with their own neighbors because they can't leave their phones or computers alone, so forget space entirely.

Antarctica is practically a tropical paradise when compared to space as well, which is something I always like to mention whenever someone makes a positive assertion about the viability of space colonization.

People take for granted that an inhospitable environment here on Earth (whether it be Antarctica, the top of Mount Everest, the North Pole, the Atacama Desert, Death Valley; take your pick) would be a highly undesirable place for people to live, yet these same people seem determined to believe that this understanding somehow doesn't apply to the rest of the Solar System, which is not only much more inhospitable than just about anywhere here on Earth (no breathable atmosphere, for a start), but is also much more expensive and impractical to get to.

The only way I could see space colonization becoming viable is if we were able to construct mega-structures such as the ones advocated by Gerard O'Neill, but I'd wager that we won't have the capability to do anything like that for centuries, if at all. Natural satellites like Mars and the Moon are dead ends for the simple reason that even if terraforming them was possible (doubtful), there's still no way of solving the problem that they lack Earth-like gravity.

 

[MadStan]

Antarctica is practically a tropical paradise when compared to space as well, which is something I always like to mention whenever someone makes a positive assertion about the viability of space colonization.

People take for granted that an inhospitable environment here on Earth (whether it be Antarctica, the top of Mount Everest, the North Pole, the Atacama Desert, Death Valley; take your pick) would be a highly undesirable place for people to live, yet these same people seem determined to believe that this understanding somehow doesn't apply to the rest of the Solar System, which is not only much more inhospitable than just about anywhere here on Earth (no breathable atmosphere, for a start), but is also much more expensive and impractical to get to.

The only way I could see space colonization becoming viable is if we were able to construct mega-structures such as the ones advocated by Gerard O'Neill, but I'd wager that we won't have the capability to do anything like that for centuries, if at all. Natural satellites like Mars and the Moon are dead ends for the simple reason that even if terraforming them was possible (doubtful), there's still no way of solving the problem that they lack Earth-like gravity.

Totally agree. Can you imagine the suicide rate for a space faring colony or those doomed to live on Mars? People just don't put much thought into it. They can forget anything other than cold steel, lead lined walls. Not even drywall or wood, just steel - steel everything. Shitty food, a steak would be a once-a-year treat, other than that it would be slop. Absolutely NOTHING to do after "work". No "space bars" where you get drunk, alcohol and drugs will be entirely banned and severely policed. You won't even be able to go "on the internet" to play a game given the time delay between planets. Same clothing every day, same food every day, same shit every single day. Prison would factually be more enjoyable than being stuck on Mars or in a capsule in space for 3 years. Nothing for your hobbies. You can forget it if your hobby is building model airplanes, art or just about anything else given the premium to deliver such luxuries to a radioactive red lump you've been dumped on. No cars. No driving. No walks. Just a TV, the same music over and over. No new faces, no restaurants, no "going to the fridge to fix up something nice" ever. Wasting paper filters on a coffee machine? No fucking way. wasting toilet paper? Not fucking way, they'll figure out a way to turn it into a construction material. No fruit. No fresh bread. Waiting for the farts of your colleagues to go through the air filter system, enjoying the purified piss of the guy standing next to you.

A martian would look at a frozen dinner and die with envy and kill for a Starbucks coffee. An the places you mention are absolute paradise compared to Mars