NSmolenskiFan on Nostr: I want to take a minute to respond to @elonmusk ‘s claim that the difficulty of ...
I want to take a minute to respond to @elonmusk ‘s claim that the difficulty of mining #bitcoin on Mars is some kind of limitation of the protocol.
I want to start with love. Moonshots (or Mars-shots) are amazing scientific and technological stretch goals for humanity. They are motivating fundamental innovation that is a net positive for the species. I have genuine love for @SpaceX and the industry of private space flight. I commend Musk for facing and overcoming countless personal, institutional, and political obstacles to push forward a truly civilizational project. Onward! 🚀
BUT—but. There is no way we approach anything even approximating “societies” on other planets for a *very* long time. These are not habitable worlds. The process of space colonization will be horrific—most people in the early waves will die, and often in unimaginably terrible ways that will make gunshots seem quick and humane by comparison. People will suffer from previously unknown and uncurable diseases as they attempt to live in environments they are not physiologically adapted to. Every scrap of normalcy experienced by humans in space will be an expensive and formidable technical and logistical achievement, subject to the possibility of complete destruction at the slightest malfunction.
When human colonization of other planets does occur, it will likely be first and foremost by militaries (with attendant violent conflict over territory and resources) and, then, by hard industrial operations, who will lay the groundwork (at great human cost) for potential civilian habitation only after extensive and bloody trial and error.
The fact that something will be “difficult on Mars” is a trivial claim because in fact absolutely *everything* will be difficult on Mars. And whatever we build there will take many human generations and cost a vast amount of treasure.
There is absolutely no substitute for Earth, the planet on which human beings evolved and to whose environment we are uniquely adapted. We’re gonna need to rely on this place for a very long time.
All of this to say: our terrestrial protocols will be just fine for many generations to come. And they will evolve as needed if needed, as all mission-critical technologies do.
I want to start with love. Moonshots (or Mars-shots) are amazing scientific and technological stretch goals for humanity. They are motivating fundamental innovation that is a net positive for the species. I have genuine love for @SpaceX and the industry of private space flight. I commend Musk for facing and overcoming countless personal, institutional, and political obstacles to push forward a truly civilizational project. Onward! 🚀
BUT—but. There is no way we approach anything even approximating “societies” on other planets for a *very* long time. These are not habitable worlds. The process of space colonization will be horrific—most people in the early waves will die, and often in unimaginably terrible ways that will make gunshots seem quick and humane by comparison. People will suffer from previously unknown and uncurable diseases as they attempt to live in environments they are not physiologically adapted to. Every scrap of normalcy experienced by humans in space will be an expensive and formidable technical and logistical achievement, subject to the possibility of complete destruction at the slightest malfunction.
When human colonization of other planets does occur, it will likely be first and foremost by militaries (with attendant violent conflict over territory and resources) and, then, by hard industrial operations, who will lay the groundwork (at great human cost) for potential civilian habitation only after extensive and bloody trial and error.
The fact that something will be “difficult on Mars” is a trivial claim because in fact absolutely *everything* will be difficult on Mars. And whatever we build there will take many human generations and cost a vast amount of treasure.
There is absolutely no substitute for Earth, the planet on which human beings evolved and to whose environment we are uniquely adapted. We’re gonna need to rely on this place for a very long time.
All of this to say: our terrestrial protocols will be just fine for many generations to come. And they will evolve as needed if needed, as all mission-critical technologies do.