Why colonize Mars and not the Moon?

[256bits]

Any other environment in the form of a massive spaceship or a nearby planet would need more work than most people could imagine,

I think you have said a mouthful there.
The Earth is one massive recycling unit, geological and biological..
with a major energy input from an outside source ( sun ) that we did not have to engineer, and needs no maintenance. reliability.
We can collect some of that energy directly ( solar panels ), indirectly ( hydro electric ), or from stored sources ( petroleum, coal ).
What is not "mentioned" is the energy from the sun that heats the earth, grows the vegetation, cycles the atmosphere and water,...
What is also not mentioned is that on Earth for more resources, we just dig a hole in the ground and extract.

I like the idea of a spaceship colony, it is interesting, no doubt about that. We may get there some day.
With present technology,
It lacks though a 100% proof in the pudding energy source, and an adequate supply of "cheap" resources.
How much is enough? Probability analysis - not sure I would trust a long trip ride on "chances are ... "

A planet - already 809 posts.

 

[anorlunda]

The difference for Earth is that the conditions were just right for us to survive with very little conscious effort. Our nature has been to 'improve' things and it has worked in as far as the human population has increased and increased. Nonetheless, I think it is still true to say that we rely more on what Earth is doing for us than on what we are actually doing. Our agriculture only works because farming has replaced existing species of flora and fauna to produce more food than was available from the indigenous organisms of a few millennia ago. The rest is still 'laid on' for us.

@sophiecentaur , what you said opens the door to another huge side track; that our future must abandon biology. All hail The Technological Singularity. But this thread is already too old and tired.

 

[sophiecentaur]

that our future must abandon biology.

Wow. That's adding another few millennia, I would think. I could never say never about such a development but I would have to ask why and what would be the advantage? We're back to the old body / mind dissociation thing. Unfortunately (for proponents of the split), the more they look into memory and consciousness, the more we seem to be tightly associated with our bodies.

 

[zwierz]

"Why colonize Mars and not the Moon?"

did not you know? because Mars has turbinium

 

[sophiecentaur]

Good to introduce that film at this point in the conversation. Firstly, doesn't Arnie look young?
Secondly, it shows a highly dysfunctional situation on both Earth and Mars. It surprises me that the Colony Enthusiasts don't see that as a possible future for such an exercise. Pretty much every other venture has turned out a bit that way.
Sci Fi is always being used for arguments in favour of space escapades. Here's an argument in the other direction and it's certainly not the only one.

 

[anorlunda]

That's adding another few millennia

Not everyone agrees. Some proponents think we can singularitize (do you like my new word?) faster than putting the first man on Mars.

[/PLAIN]
At the 2012 Singularity Summit, Stuart Armstrong did a study of artificial general intelligence (AGI) predictions by experts and found a wide range of predicted dates, with a median value of 2040.

Do you remember Arthur C. Clarke's classic novel "Childhood's End?" He was very early discussing this in 1953.

 

[sophiecentaur]

singularitize (do you like my new word?)

yes. It carries with it all the caveats that come with the singularities in our Physics.
I read Childhood's End years ago. I must go at it again.
2040! I could almost be alive still at that time. OMG

 

[nikkkom]

Why not build a HUGE space station off planet Earth and then another and then another, if survival and colonization are the goals.

Every last gram of this "HUGE space station", all the air, all water, all food (and/or soil and water to grow food from) will need to be brought from Earth.

I take it you did not even bother to read the thread before posting.