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comment by Khanstant
Khanstant  ·  4648 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is it responsible for us to consider inhabiting other planets?
My issues is with the idea that the planet is being "ruined" and that we don't "deserve" it. The planet happens to be one of the ones capable of supporting life like ours. No matter what we do, it has a finite life span and a maximum amount of time before it stops being useful for any life form. Our biggest responsibility as an intelligent life form would be to do whatever we could to preserve ours and other species beyond this doomed planet. Maintaining a sustainable Earth is important in the short to medium term, but in the long term none of it matters if we never leave the planet. It is extremely unlikely that humans will last long enough and co-operate strongly enough for us to ever actually leave and colonize space, but I can't think of anything more important for us to try.

Also, if we ever were a galactic species, I'd imagine there would be a great deal of strip mining of planets and asteroid belts and things like that. That isn't irresponsible or unethical, it's raw material that should be used by whatever forces choose to use them. It is literally nature.





mk  ·  4648 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    It is extremely unlikely that humans will last long enough and co-operate strongly enough for us to ever actually leave and colonize space, but I can't think of anything more important for us to try.

I absolutely agree. I also can't think of anything more important for us to do as a species. Navel-gazing will be the ruin of us. Politicians, conflicts, religions, and countries come and go, but we are living creatures with a history, and a future. There are so many exponential's happening right now regarding population, consumption, loss of biodiversity, development of AI, etc. If we don't create more options when the opportunity presents itself, we might not have another chance.

thenewgreen  ·  4648 days ago  ·  link  ·  
"
    Also, if we ever were a galactic species, I'd imagine there would be a great deal of strip mining of planets and asteroid belts and things like that. That isn't irresponsible or unethical, it's raw material that should be used by whatever forces choose to use them. It is literally nature"
. -I agree with this, it's also a form of earthling ethnocentrism to think that extraterrestrial life would take offense to us utilizing resources from asteroid belts and the like. Or that ET lifeforms would even acknowledge us. Could be that our existence is of little consequence to them, they may even already be aware of us. Could also be that there is no other intelligent lifeforms, who knows? It's exciting stuff though and no amount of cynicism about our fallibility will dissuade my desire to see us continue to explore.

I am excited about Curiosity http://hubski.com/pub?id=9556