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*Space Colonization is a great idea*
I see lots of negativity around ideas like this & spending $$ here in general. The pessimists are wrong for many reasons, but here's my take on it.
0/ Thread 👇
I see lots of negativity around ideas like this & spending $$ here in general. The pessimists are wrong for many reasons, but here's my take on it.
0/ Thread 👇
1/ Life on Earth is a superorganism: a massive ecosystem that's evolved over billions of years. Humans are part of that, and we need it to survive.
2/ Until we can somehow separate our consciousness from our bodies, we need our bodies, and our bodies need the superorganism, including many of the flora and fauna in it.
3/ One day, the earth will end completely (100% destruction of the superorganism). Before that happens, there will likely be multiple mass extinction events (MEE) as there has in the past (95+% of species lost, including humans).
4/ The obvious conclusion is that we need to transfer a chunk of that superorganism off Earth. Either onto another planet (@elonmusk) or on other space structures (@JeffBezos).
5/ The probability in any year or even human lifespan of an MEE extremely small. But the outcome if that happens is devastating. So even if odds were 1/1mil, the amount of resources we spend on this should be a few orders of magnitude more, like 1/1000, or 0.1%.
6/ People talk about negative effects of climate change all the time. Rightly so, as it may greatly effect the next few generations. But 100s of generations out, we're doomed unless we transfer the superorganism off Earth or take control of the sun (Dyson Sphere).
7/ We can't wait for life on Earth to be perfect and everyone to be happy to do this — that time will never come. It requires long term investments. Loooong term, in the order of 1000-10,000+ years.
8/ The ideas Bezos is talking about aren't possible in our lifetimes. The seeds need to be planted now. The good thing about space colonization, as oppose to controlling climate change, is that humans have a fundamental drive in them to explore. Or at least some of them do.
9/9 So I'm confident some people will always be pushing the boundaries for the rest of humanity. Whether humanity likes it or not.
