One small...step? for man... (spam on topic)

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

2 possible topics for discussion here.

As I'm sure many of you will be aware, World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking experienced weightlessness recently. While it's not quite outer space (which I for one hope he'll get to visit one day), seeing someone with virtually no physical mobility executing mid-air barrel rolls still struck me as pretty incredible. So firstly, any thoughts on Stephen Hawking eventually going into space?

2nd thought
Of more particular interest to me, however, is this statement.

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“Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space,” he said.

Does anyone agree/disagree with the good Professor on this one? Does humankind have no future unless we relocate somewhere else, say somewhere like here?

[AvatarOfLight]

Response to the second part, I very much doubt humanity is ever going to be completely wiped out. Society as we know it could be wiped out by WW III, deadly virus, etc true. Consider how diverse and spread out we are though. WW III and any massive viral outbreaks aren't likely to affect us all as both of these would hinder our infrastructure and ability to move around the planet greatly.

[Warggoath]

damn I want to live in that planet. Year is 13 earth days

[Moonbiter]

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Originally Posted by Mr Spanky Does anyone agree/disagree with the good Professor on this one? Does humankind have no future unless we relocate somewhere else, say somewhere like here?

IMHO mankind has gone from stargazing to navelgazing way too quickly. It's like we lost our ability to dream and our sense of curiosity and exploration when the space race ended. My thought is that a common goal and something we could all wish for would go a long way in uniting us despite our petty differences. It's a source of constant bewilderment to me why our racial need for exploration has reached such a low point that our goals now is only to develop new mobile phones and larger flat screen TVs. We've even stopped trying to figure out our own planet. Most of the world's oceans are completely unexplored, with no initiative to do so. Sure, sooner or later a nation will say "Okay, we're sending some people to Mars" and the race will begin again. The knowhow is already there, it's just a matter of that swift kick in the butt to get them started.

I agree with Hawking on this one. It's becoming painfully obvious every day that we're killing ourselves as a species down here, along with all the other species, and if we're going to survive, we must look elsewhere for our future. Maybe leaving this mudball is the only way of saving it? On a personal note I'm not sure we deserve to survive, but that's another debate entirely.

[galraen]

On question one, unfortunately I doubt his frail body could withstand the G-forces involved.

As to question two, if you take the really long term view, then of course he's right. Our sun will go nova one day in the far distant future, so if we haven't developed inter-stellar travel by then it's curtains for humanity; if we survive that long which is debatable.

[BlueSky]

Very happy for Hawking, I greatly admire the man.

[Tricky]

I saw the footage on TV just a bit earlier, I had no idea the guy is in his sixties.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

A good book on this topic (and largely set in my beloved Fremantle under the pseudonym 'Carlton' no less) is Stark, by Ben Elton.

[fable]

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...nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers...

It's interesting that simply by moving people to Some Other Place, they evidently lose the ability to create nuclear bombs or genetically engineer viral disasters. Or create chemical arms, etc. Wow. Outer space must be a wonderful place to cause the human race to forget so much that is caused by its own hatred and fear.

[Dottie]

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Originally Posted by fable It's interesting that simply by moving people to Some Other Place, they evidently lose the ability to create nuclear bombs or genetically engineer viral disasters. Or create chemical arms, etc. Wow. Outer space must be a wonderful place to cause the human race to forget so much that is caused by its own hatred and fear.

Don't you think it's more a case of putting eggs in different baskets rather than believing humanity will suddenly change? You can certainly argue about the ethical issues with such an approach, but at least it makes some kind of sense.

Personally I would prefer a navelgazing solution though.

[Xandax]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fable It's interesting that simply by moving people to Some Other Place, they evidently lose the ability to create nuclear bombs or genetically engineer viral disasters. Or create chemical arms, etc. Wow. Outer space must be a wonderful place to cause the human race to forget so much that is caused by its own hatred and fear.

There is more room in space (whoa ), so the need to fight over land and resources should be smaller..........until "we've" used up all the resources on our colonies and want to get their colonies.

As much as you can learn from fiction, then it does seem from multiple of sci-fi movies and books and games and so on that mankind will not live peaceful and in harmony even in space. We'll attack each other there as well, and we'll try to exterminated what ever other life-form we find - lest the world bands together in a sort of Star Trek "utopia".

[AvatarOfLight]

So far we've only just found 1 planet that may support life in the whole universe. Now let's say we can reach and populate it. Who is going to get which parts, who is going to run it? You've got your WW III right there.

[Xandax]

That's where "terraforming" comes into play
We'll just remake Mars to fit our needs.

[Vicsun]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fable It's interesting that simply by moving people to Some Other Place, they evidently lose the ability to create nuclear bombs or genetically engineer viral disasters. Or create chemical arms, etc. Wow. Outer space must be a wonderful place to cause the human race to forget so much that is caused by its own hatred and fear.

Of course not. But if we do manage to blow up the Earth, we'll still have another planet left. It's spreading the risk - the chances of destroying two civilizations is less than destroying one.

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Originally Posted by Mr Spanky Does anyone agree/disagree with the good Professor on this one? Does humankind have no future unless we relocate somewhere else, say somewhere like here?

I don't think we'll ever settle another planet for the simple reason that building a habitat in space is much easier (terraforming will take millennia) and carries vasts benefits like easy access to microgravity, the possibility of commerce with Earth, constant access to solar energy/asteroids and adjustable gravity.

edit: I feel like such a nerd for typing this.

[Tricky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vicsun Of course not. But if we do manage to blow up the Earth, we'll still have another planet left. It's spreading the risk - the chances of destroying two civilizations is less than destroying one.

Capital. Another loonie bin.

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edit: I feel like such a nerd for typing this.

That's okay, you have a sexy avatar.